YEREVAN. - Capital Yerevan hosts one of the authors of the manual on the implementation of efficient investigation and documentation in the context of the UN Istanbul Protocol on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The expert will hold trainings for over 30 specialists of public and private sector.

“We are very excited to see international forensic expert Önder Özkalipçi, one of the authors of the Istanbul Protocol, along with other famous international experts in Yerevan. They have arrived here to teach the foundations of struggle against torture,” Kristina Gevorkyan, director of Foundation against the Violation of Law (FAVL) NGO and one of the coordinators of the training said.  

The training - held in The Sign hotel in Yerevan - was jointly organized by FAVL and Rehabilitation Centre for Victims of Torture (‘Empathy’, Georgia) in the framework of the EU funded project “Caucasian Anti – Torture Network: Multi Rehabilitation Services for Torture Victims and Fight Impunity.”

The meeting was attended by forensic pathologists, psychiatrists, psychologists and lawyers, as well as representatives of violence prevention national mechanism, public observation groups and NGOs. Different trainings and practical work were conducted for them, during which skills of recording cases of violence and drawing up proper medical and legal reports were transferred.  

The training was followed by an event dedicated to the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (June 26) declared by the UN Convention. During the event the illegal actions by the Armenian Police against the peaceful sit-in participants in Baghramyan Avenue on June 26, 2015 were condemned.