On 18 March, 2016 Helsinki Committee of Armenia conducted training on human rights and discrimination in Hrazdan town within the frames of “Knowledge against discrimination in RA regions” project.

Representatives of functioning NGOs in Hrazdan town, active young people, students, professors and journalists participated in the training. The number of participants was 30.

The project is coordinated by Sirvard Mamikonyan, Executive Director of Helsinki Committee of Armenia, and Arsen Arsenyan, Regional Coordinator in Hrazdan.

Chairman of Helsinki Committee of Armenia Avetik Ishkhanyan presented the concept of human rights, the origin of human rights and the development.

In addition to presenting the origin of human rights and the generation, cases of human rights violations were discussed through various examples. The participants also reflected on human rights situation in Armenia.

“Human rights are not simply values. In my opinion Armenia will be a strong and powerful country when the citizens feel that their rights are protected”, said Avetik Ishkhanyan.

Robert Revazyan, Attorney of Helsinki Committee of Armenia, presented the concept and the types of discrimination.

Still in 1948, it was declared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and these rights and freedoms should be implemented without discrimination of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political opinion or any other status.

“Each of us may appear among the minority is certain situations. We should understand that people are different and we have different views and ideas. This is our country and by having discriminating attitudes we make our country small”, said Robert Revazyan.

The participants of the training were also introduced to the domestic and international instruments prohibiting discrimination, which was followed by a discussion. The participants had the opportunity to get answers to their questions about human rights and discrimination.

At the end of the training the participants filled in the evaluation sheets noting that the training was useful and productive.

In the interview with us Maneh, student of Humanitarian Institute of Hrazdan, future lawyer, said that this was the first time that she attended such training and it was a good opportunity to fill the supply of professional knowledge. “It was very useful and I understood that we can look at many phenomena with different eyes and from different perspectives. We must be able to accept people as they are. For example, I have also often faced discriminating attitude, since I am not a resident of Hrazdan town, studying here I am considered, so to say, not local”.

“Knowledge against discrimination in RA regions” project is implemented with the support of Eurasia Partnership Foundation and the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Source: Helsinki Committee of Armenia