From August 25 to 26, upon the Defender’s initiative and with the participation of international experts, special trainings were organized dedicated to the activities of the Human Rights Defender in crisis, conflict and military situations. All the issues were presented from the perspective of the Ombudsman's status.
During the training, vital issues regarding international and European modern mechanisms of human rights protection in crisis and military situations were discussed, as well as options and tools were recommended for more effective solution of human rights protection issues in pre-conflict, conflict and post-conflict situations.
The participants of the event also discussed the permissible restrictions of the rights prescribed by the European Convention on Human Rights and several questions on the implementation of the European Court's standards by the Ombudsman during situations of crisis. At the same time, the peculiarities of involving national human rights protection mechanisms in military operations or situations of crisis were presented. Special attention was paid to Ombudsman institutions' fact finding missions; best international practice in the field was presented.
The importance of the Defender's work on monitoring the shelling towards the direction of peaceful civilian population in the borderline communities and the publication of ad hoc reports in these regard was underlined. The results of the training will be used for these purposes.
The workshop was organized within the framework of the "Strengthening the Application of European Human Rights Standards in the Armed Forces in Armenia" project implemented with the Council of Europe’s support. Advocates, representatives of the Ministry of Defense, Expert Council on Military Servicemen Rights Issues adjunct to the Defender and civil society also attended the training.