The Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan participated in the General Assembly of the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) in Brussels. The heads of national human rights institutions and other well-known international organizations of the world participated in the event as well.
During the Assembly, along with other topics the activity of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia was also discussed in "The Ombudsman as a Guarantor of International Commitments" session. The role of the Ombudsman in ensuring access to information and in civil activism was highlighted.
The work of the RA Human Rights Defender in the implementation of international human rights standards in Armenia, as well as on cooperation with international organizations was highly appreciated. Particularly, the process of combining the discussions of individual complaints and contribution to systematic changes was presented.
The experience of presenting special opinions to the Constitutional Court, preparing legislative drafts and examining legislative acts from the perspective of human rights was studied. The importance of professional trainings based on the results of discussion and monitoring of the complaints addressed to the Defender was also highlighted.
The experience of French and Armenian Ombudsmen in being a third party in the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) was discussed by comparative analysis and was suggested as an example. Mr. Paul Lemmens, an ECtHR judge, as well as Mr. David Renders, a professor of the Catholic University of Louvain, underlined this experience in their presentation.
The experience of the RA Human Rights Defender in this issue is unique as it is related to the prevention of torture.