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Naira Zohrabyan, a member of the opposition Prosperous Armenia faction in the National Assembly (NA) as well as a member of the NA delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), on Wednesday addressed the PACE 2019 Autumn Session in Strasbourg, France, spoke about the institute of Human Rights Defenders (Ombudsmen) in Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), and presented their activities. 

In her remarks, Zohrabyan referred also to PACE Resolution 2240, which allows unlimited access to member states, including “grey zones,” by Council of Europe and United Nations human rights monitoring bodies.

“After the recent legislative changes [in Armenia], the mandate of the Human Rights Defender has further strengthened and expanded in our country,” Zohrabyan said, in particular. “In our country, the Human Rights Defender [now] has certain institutional and financial guarantees.

“In addition, the effective cooperation established between the institutes of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia and Artsakh is extremely important.

“The institute of Human Rights is one of the established institutes of Artsakh, and the institute of the Ombudsman of Artsakh has been a full member of the European Ombudsman Institute for over ten years already.

“A year ago, our Assembly adopted Resolution 2240, which allows unlimited access to member states, including ‘grey zones,’ by Council of Europe and United Nations human rights monitoring bodies. This resolution must finally be implemented. I would like to recall that under the resolution, the Assembly reaffirmed the legal obligations it has assumed toward the Council of Europe member states—to fully cooperate and act in good faith with the mechanisms for international human rights monitoring, including in terms of access to conflict zones. (…). So far, sadly, no progress has been made [in this regard] on the Artsakh issue.

“I hope that in this case, along with frozen conflicts, we will also not have a frozen resolution, whose examples, sadly, have not been few at our Assembly.”

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