Today,
the Human Rights Defender Mr. Arman Tatoyan received Ms. Verena Taylor Director
of the Council of Europe Office of the Directorate General of Programmes, and Ms.
Martina Schmidt, the newly appointed Head of the Council of Europe Office in
Yerevan.
Mr. Arman
Tatoyan congratulated Ms. Martina Schmidt on undertaking the mission, highly
appreciating the high-level of cooperation with the Council of Europe, and in
particular, the cooperation with the Council of Europe Office in Yerevan.
During
the meeting, the Human Rights Defender presented the results of his
fact-finding activities in Syunik and Gegharkunik province related to the
rights of the border residents of Armenia.
It
was especially emphasized that the Azerbaijani authorities are artificially protracting
and politicizing the process of the release and return of the captives.
The Human
Rights Defender also referred to the problems of the people displaced from
Artsakh as a result the September-November 2020 war and the relevant special
report based on the fact-finding activities of the Human Rights Defender.
During
the meeting, issues related to the protection of women’s rights were discussed,
including awareness raising campaigns of the Human Rights Defender to combat
stereotypes, and issues related to the development of journalists’ capacity to
cover domestic violence, etc.
Mr. Arman
Tatoyan stressed that during the state of emergency declared against the New
Coronavirus (COVID-19), a working group was set up in the Office of the Defender to deal with issues related to the
protection of women’s and children's rights, and the prevention of domestic
violence, because, especially in that period, the study of the applications had
demonstrated that the risk of violence against women, children and the elderly had
increased due to the specific guidelines for the prevention of infection around
the world (isolation, not going to work, as a side effect - social issues,
etc.).
During
the meeting, the parties reached an agreement to expand the scope of
cooperation.
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