OSCE supports monitoring training for Armenian human rights defenders

TSAKHKADZOR, Armenia, 11 November 2011 – Increasing human rights knowledge and strengthening the monitoring capacities of civil society organizations was the aim of a three-day training course that ended today in Armenia.

The initiative is organized by the Helsinki Committee of Armenia NGONGO
non-governmental organization with the support of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

Three civil society monitoring groups that currently monitor closed, semi-closed and open institutions in Armenia participated. One group monitors the human rights situation in penitentiary institutions, another conducts monitoring visits to police detention centres, while a third monitors special secondary educational institutions under the Armenian Ministry of Education and Science. Members of the Expert Council of the Armenian Human Rights Defender’s Office designated as a National Preventive Mechanism under the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), which involves members of civil society organizations, also took part.

“This training event is a part of our efforts to strengthen the monitoring capacities of civil society organizations. We hope the course will further equip civil society organizations with the legal expertise and competencies necessary for the protection and promotion of human rights,” said Vladimir Tchountoulov, Human Rights Officer of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

“In view of the fact that Armenia has a number of human rights monitoring groups, whose members are elected on a rotational basis, there is an obvious need to ensure that these and members of other NGOs involved in human rights monitoring and torture prevention mechanisms are well trained,” said Avetik Ishkhanyan, the Chairman of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia.

“The course also aims to strengthen networking and co-operation between these groups, as well as, to familiarize other civil society organizations and human rights defenders about the groups’ activities,” he added. 

Some 20 members of non-governmental organizations were trained on international human rights standards, especially on treatment of persons deprived of liberty, the domestic legislative framework, human rights monitoring bodies and techniques. Sessions included freedom of information and data collection, legislative overview and analysis, observation, interviews, report drafting and advocacy.

The event follows a similar course for these groups and other potential monitors from other non-governmental organizations organized by the OSCE in October this year, with the participation of the Chairman of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and the Adviser to the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights.