Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan today received Director of the Office of the Directorate General of Programmes of the Council of Europe Verena Taylor and newly appointed Head of the Council of Europe Office in Yerevan Martina Schmidt, as reported on the Facebook page of Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Tatoyan congratulated Martina Schmidt on assuming her mission and highly appreciated the high-level cooperation with the Council of Europe and particularly the Council of Europe Office in Yerevan.

During the meeting, the Ombudsman presented the results of his fact-finding activities in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces in regard to the rights of Armenia’s borderline residents. He particularly emphasized that the Azerbaijani authorities are artificially delaying and politicizing the release and return of Armenian captives.

Tatoyan also touched upon the problems of persons displaced from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) following the war that took place in September-November 2020 and the Special Report that the Ombudsman prepared based on the results of the fact-finding activities.

During the meeting, the interlocutors also discussed issues related to the protection of women’s rights, including the Ombudsman’s awareness-raising campaigns aimed at breaking stereotypes. Tatoyan stressed that during implementation of the restrictions that Armenia set during the state of emergency declared for the fight against the novel coronavirus, the Ombudsman’s Staff set up a task force that dealt with women’s and children’s rights protection and prevention of domestic violence since the study of applications showed that there was a higher risk of violence against women, children and the elderly in that period.