HRC45 – Item 6 (Adoption of UPR) – Armenia

HRHF oral statement

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Thank you.

Although progress has been made since the revolution in 2018, challenges remain in guaranteeing the rights of human rights defenders in Armenia:

  • Smear campaigns are launched against defenders in an unprecedented manner, including hate speech and online harassment directed at women human rights defenders and their organisations;
  • Environmental activists are continuously targeted by private mining companies and sometimes by police during peaceful demonstrations.
  • And harassment and discrimination against LGBTQI defenders remains widespread.

In response, anti-human rights rhetoric is not being adequately addressed by the state either through public narrative or through legislation. Freedom of opinion and expression and the rights of human rights defenders need stronger protections.

HRHF and Human Rights House Yerevan, therefore, make the following recommendations to Armenia:

  1. To conduct a high-level public campaign in support of human rights defenders with the official and public condemnation of attacks on defenders and their families when they occur;
  2. To carry out independent and prompt investigations into such attacks to end the atmosphere of impunity;
  3. To compile statistics on attacks, along with information relating to their investigation and rates of prosecution.

Finally, we remind Armenia that it pledged to uphold the highest human rights standards when it became a member of the Human Rights Council. In its first year of membership, Armenia has not always demonstrated the strong support for human rights protections of civil society in other countries that Armenia itself expected from the international community in 2018. In a time when civil society across the region is under increased attack by state actors or those acting on their behalf, Armenia should remember that its voting record in the Human Rights Council is just as much part of its human rights record as its domestic actions. 

Thank you.