OSCE trains Armenian human rights defenders on monitoring freedom of assembly

YEREVAN, 15 September 2008 - The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) launched a four-day training course today for Armenian human rights defenders on how to monitor and report on the freedom of assembly.

The course is organized together with the OSCE Office in Yerevan, the Council of Europe and the Helsinki Committee of Armenia.

"Freedom of peaceful assembly is a cornerstone of democratic society," said Lydia Grigoreva of the ODIHR's Focal Point for Human Rights Defenders and National Human Rights Institutions.

"By improving the skills of human rights defenders to monitor public gatherings and report on how the freedom of assembly is respected, we intend to contribute to strengthening dialogue with national authorities on how to better protect freedom of assembly at the national and local level," she added.

Following the violence in the aftermath of the February 2008 parliamentary elections, the Armenian parliament significantly tightened the country's freedom of assembly legislation. The parliament later repealed most of the changes, after a legal review prepared by ODIHR and the Council of Europe's Venice Commission had found that the amendments were not in line with international standards.

The training is designed to enable human rights defenders to monitor how Armenia's freedom of assembly legislation and international standards in this field are being implemented in practice. This includes the policing of events, adherence to agreements on conditions for assemblies, the interaction between participants in a demonstration and counter-demonstrators and the conduct of participants in a demonstration passing sensitive locations.

Following the training course, human rights defenders will monitor assemblies throughout the country for six months. Their observations will be compiled in a report that will be submitted to the authorities.

The training builds on the Guidelines on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly, which outline international standards and illustrate key principles with examples of good practice from the OSCE region. The Guidelines were drafted by the ODIHR Panel of Experts on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and endorsed by the Council of Europe's Venice Commission in June 2008.

The Guidelines emphasize the State's positive obligation to protect peaceful assemblies, including those that voice unpopular opinions, and suggest that any restrictions imposed on freedom of assembly must be proportional and have a formal basis in law.