In November 2020 Armenian human rights advocate Ms. Anna
Astvatsaturian Turcotte, who is a former refugee from Baku and lives in the
United States of America, informed the Human Rights Defender about an important
Initiative spearheaded by her and her Foundation (www.Astvatsaturian.org).
We have learnt that the Foundation launched a process to
document medical, psychological, financial and physical damages suffered by the
affected population of Artsakh in the aftermath of the 2020 Artsakh War.
As Ms. Astvatsaturian informed, additionally to assisting the
work of Armenia’s and Artsakh’s Human Rights Defenders, the purpose of the data
collection was also to assist the Governments of Artsakh and Armenia and
international humanitarian agencies, to learn the exact impact of the
devastation in Artsakh in order to assist the impacted families. Information
collected will be utilized in three potential ways:
·
To establish a knowledge base to assess the need and to provide
assistance to socio-economic rights to those affected families;
·
To establish the legal framework for restitution of Armenians
who suffered financial and personal loss during the 2020 Artsakh War; and
·
To utilize the information collected to contribute to prevention
of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the future.
The Office of the Human Rights Defender contributed to the
Initiative by assisting in creation of the thorough questionnaire to collect
the data and advised the project from its infancy. The Initiative is
implemented in collaboration with the Association of Armenian Social Workers
(AASW).
The Human Rigts Defender’s Office recently learned that the
Foundation has already employed more than 100 staff members to conduct the
interviews, interviewers who have been thoroughly trained by the Association of
Armenian Social Workers and other organizations that partnered with Ms. Anna
Astvatsaturian to offer subject matter expertise and training. Our Office also
learned that in the first few weeks of the process nearly 11.500 families in
Artsakh and 2500 families in Armenia have been interviewed.
The Human Rights Defender wishes Anna Astvatsaturian Foundation
and its partners continued success. We support the work conducted by Ms. Anna
Astvatsaturian and I look forward to receiving the detailed analysis of the
data collected in the coming weeks.
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