Discussion organized by the Democracy Development Foundation and Armenia’s Interior Ministry about civilian oversight in places for holding arrested persons
Last week, the Democracy Development Foundation organized jointly with the Republic of Armenia Interior Ministry, and with the participation of civil society and stakeholders representatives, a workshop on The Activities of Civilian Oversight Mechanisms and Public Observer Groups in Places for Holding Arrested Persons.
The goal of the event was to discuss issues related to the activities of public observers groups in places for holding arrested persons and the need for reviewing the legal acts regulating this sphere.
Opening the workshop, Democracy Development Foundation’s Senior Program Officer Tatevik Khachatryan noted that civilian oversight of places for holding arrested persons is a key component of the comprehensive reforms of the Interior Ministry, and that civil society continues to focus on the human rights protection issues in these institutions.
Deputy Interior Minister Arpine Sargsyan, who took part in the discussion, highlighted the importance of efforts to strengthen the toolkits needed for civilian oversight, and said it would enable impartially identifying the problems in this sphere and outlining institutional solutions.
“Strengthening and expanding the toolkits needed for civilian oversight is consistent with the logic of forming the Interior Ministry,” Arpine Sargsyan said. Turning then to the work of public observers groups in places for holding arrested persons, she mentioned the need to introduce a new regulation on their activities, consistent with the logic of forming the Interior Ministry.
Laura Gasparyan, Implementation Coordinator of the National Preventive Mechanism in the Staff of the Human Rights Defender, presented the oversight toolkit of the Office of the Human Rights Defender in the frameworks of the National Preventive Mechanism.
The participants agreed to continue the discussions with civil society in the near future and to reach final consensus on the new regulation on the activities of the public observers groups, as well as to consider the recommendations on changes to the process of realizing the rights of arrested persons, which will allow presenting a separate set of proposed legal amendments.
The workshop was organized by the Interior Ministry and the Democracy Development Foundation in the frameworks of Integrity of Justice Reforms project.
Video credits to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpH9SyhUaXw
Photo by the Interior Ministry