YEREVAN. – The OSCE Office in Yerevan has contributed to the creation of the Public Monitoring Group and it assists in the activities of the group.  

Ambassador Andrei Sorokin, who heads the OSCE (i.e., Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Office in Yerevan, told the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am, in response to the query as to whether the penitentiaries in Armenia are monitored.

Sorokin noted that the abovementioned group comprises NGO representatives, and the detention centers of Armenia are monitored on a regular basis.   

“The group, which was set up in 2004, has access to all [penal] establishments, and it monitors the rights of the prisoners and the detainees and their confinement conditions.

“Our office organizes trainings to raise the qualifications of new members of the group. We assist the advisory council adjunct to the National Preventive Mechanism and the Human Rights Defender, to conduct precautionary visits and introduce the international track-record in this domain,” Andrei Sorokin stated.