On June 6, the Human Rights Defender Ms. Anahit Manasyan
received Ms. Angela Longo, Head of the Anti-Discrimination Cooperation Unit of
the Directorate General of Democracy and Human Dignity of the Council of
Europe, and Ms. Maya Stojanovich, Senior Program Officer.
Ms. Mariam Aleksanyan, the Project Officer for the
Promoting equality and non-discrimination in Armenia program of the Yerevan
office of the Council of Europe, also participated in the meeting.
Welcoming the guests, Ms. Manasyan presented the current
challenges in the field of guaranteeing equality and anti-discrimination in
Armenia. In this context, the Defender underlined the impermissible levels of
hate speech, discrimination, and intolerance in Armenia today and the
importance of the activities being carried out within the framework of the
fight against it.
The Defender noted that these phenomena are widespread in
Armenia, and it is unacceptable. Of particular concern is the use of
discriminatory speech and hate speech on all grounds in the academic community,
by political and public figures, as well as the media. Ms. Manasyan
particularly emphasized that any manifestation of hate speech should be
excluded from public speech.
The Human Rights Defender highly valued the level of
cooperation between the Defender’s Office, and the Council of Europe in the
field of combating discrimination, and expressed her readiness to expand
cooperation. During the meeting, inter
alia, the possible directions of cooperation, the possibility of developing the
capacities of the representatives of the Defender’s Office with the support of
the Council of Europe were discussed.
During the meeting, issues related to the protection of
the rights of national minorities, persons with disabilities, as well as other
groups were also discussed.
In her turn, Ms. Longo thanked the Defender for the
reception, and the effective discussion that took place.
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