ACTIVITIES
Court of Cassation Overturns Decision in Soldier Death Case After Peace Dialogue NGO Appeal
Following multiple rejected appeals by the Prosecutor’s Office, the First Instance Court of General Jurisdiction of Gegharkunik Marz, and the Criminal Court of Appeal, Peace Dialogue NGO’s special appeal to the Court of Cassation was accepted on January 31, 2023. The Court of Cassation’s recent ruling annulled the 2022 decision of the Criminal Court of Appeal, upholding the victim’s legal successor’s complaint and highlighting procedural violations during the investigation.
Strengthening Security Sector Reform in Armenia: A Multi-Stakeholder Collaborative Roundtable Dialogue
Armenia in Focus: Navigating the Eastern Partnership, Regional Security, and European Integration
“…Despite 58% of the Armenian population favoring EU membership, EU-Armenia relations remain vulnerable to Russian influence…”
Peace Dialogue NGOs suggestions on the draft action plan of the RA Ministry of Defense for the Human Rights protection for the period 2017-2019
In response to the announcement posted on the RA Ministry of Defense website inviting non-governmental organizations to send proposals for designing a draft action plan for the period of 2017-2019 stemming from the provisions of the strategy for the protection of Human Rights, Peace Dialogue NGO sent the following suggestions to the RA Ministry of Defense.
The Armenian Army is Used for the Political Gains by the Regime Once Again
On August 11, 2016, in response to the Peace Dialogue’s letter, the Chief of Staff of the RA MoD, stated: “According to Article 9 and Article 12 of the RA law on State and Official Secrets, as well as the decision N 173 made on March 13, 1998 and decision number 665 made on October 29, 1998, the questions and legal acts, requested by the organization, contain state and official secrets.
Art Can Unite. ARENA: Summer School
The inaugural ARENA: Summer School for Peace and Art was held this year in Borjomi, Georgia. During the Summer School a group of 47 activists, independent artists and trainers from 9 different countries including the Russian Federation, Netherlands, Armenia, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Italy, Ukraine, Georgia, and Germany worked in three groups: theatre, graphic design and video.
The Summer School was organized under the scope of the three-year project ARENA: Community Theatre and Public Art launched in 2015. ARENA aims to empower civil society representatives of former Soviet Union and Eastern partnership countries and the Russian Federation to work together to develop creative approaches, new methods and activities in the field of human rights and peace building.
Where were you before the war?
“Very often people get angry and say “Where were you before the conflict? Why weren’t you doing such trainings before the conflict?” And I answer, we do our activities not after this conflict but before a future possible conflict. The things we say to other people mean nothing and have no effect on them. The most effective method is how we live our lives and how we deal with the things in a given situations: this is what people see and value first of all”. – This is how G. Bozicevic formulated his view on peace leadership.
The database of fatal incidents in the armed forces now lists a total of 810 fatalities.
The website and database www.safesoldiers.am has been updated with information provided to Peace Dialogue NGO by private individuals, and NGOs along with information from public media. With this update, the website database now lists a total of 810 fatalities recorded in the Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh armed forces since 1994 (currently the complete database is available at the Armenian version of the website).
A Group Discussion Workshop with Women’s Peace Agency project participants
Through the grant from CMI, Peace Dialogue provided financial support to a total of five projects. In two of the projects the participants were mainly young people. These projects were intended to analyze public monuments as components of collective memory and the messages they send to future generations. Another three projects were directed at particular segments of the history, for example documentation of the memories of women who survived the war and children born after the war.
Peace Dialogue NGO’s Request Was Rejected By The Administrative Court.
In a court hearing presided over by Judge Arman Dilanyan on March 11, 2016 the Administrative Court of Armenia decided to reject Peace Dialogue NGO’s complaint challenging the legitimacy of the classification of secret information mentioned in Section 17, Point 42 and 43 in the list provided by Executive Order N9 of the Ministry of Defense, dated July 9, 2015, and to partially annul the executive order.
