Arman Tatoyan, the Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia has made opening remarks about freedom of expression and assembly/protests during the OSCE / ODIHR high-level conference in Warsaw which he attended at special invitation.
He presented the work of the Human Rights Defender during the events in April-May 2018 in Armenia to the conference participants. In particular, the Defender mentioned the round-the-clock work, visits to police departments and detention facilities, 24-hour observation of protests, etc.
Arman Tatoyan also touched upon the importance, as well as the guarantees of ensuring freedom of speech and assembly.
“It was important to maintain the peaceful nature of the protests in April-May, and the leader of "My Step" movement, former deputy of the National Assembly, and current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian played a major role in that. In his exhortations, he urged the participants to be tolerant, behave in a peaceful way and prevent violence. In general, maximum effort should be made to exclude any manifestation of hatred or intolerance.” Arman Tatoyan noted.
Arman Tatoyan talked about the existence of fake user accounts and similar groups on social media, which made aggressive posts and called for violence, developing day by day and presenting a challenge in those months. The issue over the necessity to protect the work of journalists was mentioned as well.
During the conference, the role of national human rights institutions in protecting freedom of speech and assembly on the international arena was also highlighted. In particular, the importance of platforms such as the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI), the OSCE / ODIHR, the Council of Europe and others was emphasized.