Open news feed Close news feed
A A

OMBUDSMAN’S STEPS WILL BE MADE PUBLIC

Politics

February 8, 2007, Yerevan, Armenia – Today, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Human Rights Defender's Office (HRDO) of Armenia signed an agreement that marked the start of a new joint project in support of human rights protection and promotion in Armenia.

Importantly, public awareness-raising is the one of the main components of the project: a series of TV programmes, where the Ombudsman will raise and discuss major human rights issues for the country, will be produced and broadcasted on national television.

In addition, the capacity of the HRD office to annually report back to the public on their activities will be enhanced, which will contribute to the human rights promotion and protection in the country.

The Head of UN and UNDP in Armenia Ms. Consuelo Vidal noted in her speech: "We are proud to continue our collaboration with the Ombudsman's office, with the support of the Swedish Agency for International Development (Sida). We strongly believe in UN values and human rights are the basis of the whole UN programme in Armenia. With this project we will strive to ensure that public awareness of human rights is increased and appropriate capacity is created for human rights education, protection and promotion in Armenia."

Mr. Armen Harutyunyan, Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia stated: “This project will greatly contribute to the awareness raising campaign regularly carried out by our institution throughout the country. Due to TV-shows, envisaged in this project, the Human Rights Defender will have an opportunity to provide transparency as well as be accountable to the public at large on the activities carried out by the Institution.

"I express my gratitude to the organisers and have the strong belief that such activities can increase the level of legal awareness among the population and create a culture of promotion of human rights.” – mentioned Mr. Harutyunyan.

Since the origins of the United Nations, promoting respect for, and observance of, human rights everywhere in the world has been one of the major tasks of the Organization. UNDP Armenia office has lent great support to the promotion of human rights in Armenia.

The project will last from February 2007 to December 2008. The project will be implemented in very close coordination with the project of the Raoul Wallenburg Institute, which is enhancing the institutional capacity of the Human Rights Defender’s Office.