OSCE Office promotes respect for human rights in Armenia's army

YEREVAN, 22 February 2011 – An OSCE-supported discussion held today in Yerevan focused on international best practices for democratic control of the armed forces and human rights protection in the military.

Representatives of the government and civil society took part in the meeting, which contributed to a recently intensified debate in Armenia about the respect for human rights in the armed forces. The discussions highlighted OSCE commitments in this field, national legislation, Armenia's regulatory framework and the role of different institutions in protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms of armed forces personnel.

The OSCE Office in Yerevan, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Partnership for Open Society Initiative organized the event.

“The armed forces play a key role in ensuring the security of a country, but at the same time, they are vulnerable to human rights violations. It is important that safeguards are in place to help ensure respect for the rights of armed forces personnel,” said Ambassador Sergey Kapinos, the Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

The OSCE Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security, adopted in 1994, obliges the participating States to provide for democratic control of armed and security forces and to ensure their compliance with international humanitarian law.

Ara Nazaryan, Armenian Deputy Defence Minister, informed the audience about a number of initiatives undertaken by the Ministry to promote human rights in the army. ”We highly value strengthening co-operation with civil society and are actively involved in preventing violations and ensuring discipline in the armed forces,” he said. “We do so by encouraging co-operation between commanders of military units, law enforcement bodies and civil society representatives. We believe that the proposals and recommendations resulting from today’s meeting will be useful for furthering our joint work”.

Hrayr Karapetyan, the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Defence, National Security and Internal Affairs of the Armenian National Assembly, presented legislative initiatives in the field, focusing on the draft law on the Disciplinary Rule Book of the Armed Forces and the proposal to introduce a military Ombudsman.