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Human rights in the military is an issue of concern to rights groups around the world. In Armenia, reports by local and international organisations and the US Department of State suggest a concerning situation in the the country’s armed forces.

The OSCE Office in Yerevan (hereafter also referred to as the Office) has been established based on the July 22, 1999 decision of the OSCE Permanent Council and started its operation on February 16, 2000 after the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia ratified the memorandum of understanding signed between OSCE and the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Office is one of the key European institutions in the country.

All the participants had the opportunity to apply for a project which would allow them to get closely acquainted with each other, share their own experience among each other, learn about the situation in the local communities, as well as present projects aimed at cooperative learning and strengthen the ties between the activists and independent artists functioning in the spheres of human rights and peace-building in Russian Federation, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Georgia.

German Foundation Culture Counts in cooperation with the Federal Foreign Office organized the first “Global Peacebuilder Summit” from September 4-9, 2016. 30 peace and human rights activists from around the world gathered in Berlin to discuss the role of civil society in peacebuilding processes. The objective of the “Global Peacebuilder Summit” was to strengthen these key actors in their commitment, to make their work better known to the broad public, and to facilitate the networking between them.

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.

During the three days following the capture of the Patrol Service Regiment in Yerevan on June 17, 2016 an unprecedented number of arrests, detentions, and beatings as well as the obstruction of the free movement of citizens and activists by the police were reported.

“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.