Today, on October 13, an extended session of the Expert Council on Human Rights Protection in the Armed Forces adjunct to the Human Rights Defender was held, during which the issues related to deaths in the army in non-combat conditions and the strengthening of discipline as well as the state of the rights of people in the process of training camps were presented and discussed: the human rights and humanitarian situation in the context of recent developments in Nagorno-Karabakh was also discussed.
The round table discussion, organized with the support of the "Fostering Human Rights in the Armed Forces of Armenia" project of the Council of Europe was attended by the Office of the Human Rights Defender, the Council of Europe, the National Assembly, the Ministry of Defense, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Investigative Committee, the National Security Service, the Office of the Security Council, the Chamber of Advocates and representatives of civil society organizations. The Human Rights Defender Ms. Anahit Manasyan, Head of the Transversal Challenges and Multilateral Projects Division of the Council of Europe Mr. Tigran Karapetyan, Deputy Defense Minister Mr. Arman Sargsyan, and Committee Chair of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security of the National Assembly Mr. Andranik Kocharyan made opening remarks.
The Human Rights Defender Ms. Anahit Manasyan especially emphasized that the issues of the rights of servicemen and their family members as well as the protection of human rights in the Armed Forces in general are among her priorities. "Individual complaints addressed to me, calls to the hotline, our visits to military units and other military institutions, as well as constant contacts with servicemen and their family members, make possible to highlight systemic and current problems and make them the subject of discussions to search for solutions to problems".
During the session, Mr. Andranik Yeghoyan, Head of the Unit for the Protection of the Rights of Servicemen and Their Families, presented the cases of deaths in peaceful conditions and the problems related to strengthening discipline in the army. "The armed forces' combat capability is directly related to military discipline. In the last 3 years, we have noticed an increase in self-inflicted injuries and deaths in the army, which is very concerning. At the moment, a number of complaints and discussion procedures regarding the deaths of servicemen in peaceful conditions are under active proceedings in the Human Rights Defender's office. We classify all these issues based on hotline alerts, written and verbal complaints, media publications, as well as monitoring visits to military units, and private conversations with military personnel.
In the session of the Council, the state of protection of the rights of individuals during the training sessions, the complaints addressed to the Human Rights Defender, the issues raised during the various monitoring visits conducted by the Department of Protection of the Rights of Servicemen and their Family Members of the Defender's Office and the ways of solving them were discussed. During the Q&A session, the participants raised institutional matters related to the sector. There was a summary of the activities of the council session and an exchange of ideas on further plans.
The Human Rights Defender highly appreciates the high-level cooperation formed with the Yerevan office of the Council of Europe, competent state bodies, and civil society, as a result, an effective platform was once again created for joint discussion of existing issues.
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