ACTIVITIES

Intended for disseminating the necessary practical information for the protection of human rights during military service among conscripts and their relatives, the step by step guide has been developed for the purpose of preventing cases of violation of human rights during conscription or military service if necessary. Specialists of the RA Ombudsman’s Office, the RA MoD and the Ministry of Education and Science were also involved in the preparation of the guide.

During the meeting a discussion was held with representatives of different subdivisions of the RA MoD, who introduced the activities carried out by their subdivisions within the scope of the National Human Rights Action Plan for 2017-2019 and the legal acts adopted as a result of these activities.

Peace Dialogue NGO has initiated a strategic litigation for the protection of the right of military servicemen who have graduated from military-educational institutions and refuse post-educational military service. With the involvement of lawyer Artur Sukiasyan, the organization is planning to apply to the court on the basis of one of the military servicemen enrolled in the RA Reserve Military Forces with the request to invalidate the RA government decree provision applied on him. In the case of refusal of post-educational military service, servicemen who have graduated from military-educational institutions must compensate the expenses of their education. The compensation procedure is set in the RA Governmental Decree 393-Nof 8 April, 2010.

On August 20-27, 2018, 24 young people aged 18-25 representing France, Germany, Turkey, and Armenia, reunited in Vanadzor and Yerevan for implementing the second phase of the four-national exchange program launched in November, 2017. The project is organized by the Marseille-based organization “Une Terre Culturelle” with the participation of Centre Français de Berlin (French Center in Berlin), AFS in Istanbul, and the Vanadzor-based “Peace Dialogue” NGO.

On August 2-12, the 3rd Summer School organized within the scope of “ARENA: Community Theatre and Public Art” took place in Borjomi, Georgia. Around 40 activists from Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Germany, and Georgia participated in the final meeting of the four-year program initiated by Peace Dialogue NGO and its German partner OWEN e.V.

According to official numbers, more than 496,000 people were forcibly evicted from Chechnya and Ingushetia by Stalin’s regime in 1944. The official documents state that 411,000 people were sent to Kazakhstan and 86,000 to Kyrgyzstan. Other sources put the number much higher, at over 650,000. Chechen historians claim that about 400,000 people died during the deportation.

“People were put in cattle wagons, which would stop on the way only to let people relieve themselves” – tells Hava Mahmudova, remembering the stories her mother told her about the deportation of her family to Kazakhstan. – “During the stops, soldiers demanded that the bodies of the dead were unloaded…

A four-day workshop entitled Gender Approach in Community Organizing was held in Zugdidi, Georgia from 9thto 12thof May, 2018. The event was initiated by Tsitsino Shengelia from the Centre for Civic Activism from Zugdidi in the framework of the project “ARENA: Community Theatre and Public Art”.