ACTIVITIES

Peace Dialogue NGO announces a call for cooperation with representatives of civil society organizations in monitoring the RA Ministry of Defense’s (MoD) activities in the scope of the Action Plan 2020-2022 deriving from the RA National Strategy on Protection of Human Rights (HRAP Action Plan 2020-22).

For participating in this initiative entitled Civil Society Support for Democratic Oversight Processes of Human Rights Conditions in the Armenian Army, launched in May 2020, please, fill in the application form attached to this article.

The deadline for application submission is 25 June, 2020. Only successful candidates will be contacted.

At the beginning of 2020, Peace Dialogue NGO became involved in the activities of National multi-stakeholder platform on democratic security sector oversight. Aiming to promote democratic-civilian oversight of the security sector in Armenia, the platform brings together representatives of government agencies operating in the security sector, oversight bodies, and civil society organizations.

Peace Dialogue NGO recently completed work on its civic journalism training project for Armenian youth from the Lori, Shirak and Tavush regions funded by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives. Various examples of participants’ work can now be viewed on the project’s new online platform here (in Armenian).

On 3-7 December, Peace Dialogue NGO organized its second civic journalism training session as part of the Training Next-Generation Civic Journalists in Northern Armenia as Future Democracy Watchdogs project. Youth interested in civic journalism and possible careers as journalists and broadcast news reporters travelled to Dilijan to attend learning sessions on how to make interesting, compelling photojournalism reports and short videos.

Meeting participants emphasized the importance of civil society monitoring, and they expressed willingness to work together in developing the next three-year action plan.

Peace Dialogue organized and hosted its first training in civic journalism for regional youth from northern Armenian between 29 September and 2 October in Gyumri. 18 young men and women (ages 16-25) traveled to Gyumri to attend an event led by the creative producer at Armenian Public TV (H1) Armen Sargsyan and media trainer Mane Papyan. The four-day event, organized as part of a project entitled “Preparing New Generation Civic Journalists in the Northern Regions of Armenia” which is funded by the Canadian government’s Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI), began with discussions on journalistic theory and what the role of journalists is in democratic societies.

A discussion entitled Investigation of criminal cases initiated in non-combat deaths in the army: is comprehensive, thorough and impartial investigation of cases guaranteed? took place on 12 September 2019 in Article 3 Club. The event was the result of cooperative efforts between Peace Dialogue NGO and Article 3 Club. Some of the criminal cases launched based on deaths recorded over the past 10 years have been dropped or suspended during the judicial process. Meanwhile, some are still in the preliminary stages of investigation. Victims’ successors cannot find out the real causes of their relatives’ death, and it has become common practice that those responsible for these criminal acts go unidentified and are not punished.