Project: “Human Rights, Monitoring and Publicity”
“Coalition for Equal Rights”
Members: Journalists for Human Rights” NGO,
“Human Rights Power” NGO,
“Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities” NGO for Disabled Persons,
“Free Journalists’ Association” NGO).
With the Project, the Equal Rights Coalition aims to promote human rights protection in three areas: reduction of threats to human rights defenders, protection of the rights of persons with disabilities, protection of the rights of persons in closed institutions, such as the rights of servicemen and detainees, and exclusion of torture.
1․ In order to reduce the pressure on human rights defenders, the Coalition will monitor and document cases of violence, pressure and harassment towards human rights defenders, civil activists and journalists, and will deliver a summary report. The cases of violence will be recorded in the Report Police platform of the legal news website of the Journalists for Human Rights Forrights.am, for publicizing and documentation purposes of these cases. Parenthetically, it is planned to rename the online Report Police platform and make some changes in it. The Coalition will provide free legal advice and advocacy services to human rights defenders, journalists and civil activists who have been subjected to violence.
Journalistic investigations will be conducted for each case and will be published in forrights.am website. Meetings with human rights defenders, journalists, advocates and civil activists will be held in Town Hall format, with representatives of the Human Rights Defender’s Office and the justice system aiming at raising the existing issues in the human rights sphere. Meetings with citizens who have been tortured and suffered from the judiciary system will be organized in Chatham House format. The coalition will create a seven-member working group with participation of the judiciary and prosecutorial systems and expert circles of the field. The issues raised will be analyzed and clear ways of solutions will be presented.
2․ In order to promote the protection of rights and interests of persons with disabilities, the Coalition plans to develop a monitoring tool serving persons with disabilities, oversee the accessibility of services provided to people with disabilities in Vanadzor and prepare a summary report. The journalistic team of the Coalition will prepare investigative articles and will publish them on the Forrights.am website to reveal the cases of violations of the rights of persons with disabilities and the shortcomings of the public policy.
3․ In order to reduce torture and discrimination in closed institutions, the Coalition plans to provide free legal advice to persons in closed institutions (or those who have been in such institutions) and their families. The Coalition team will conduct journalistic investigations and publish them on the Forrights.am website aiming at publicizing the cases of violations of the rights of our beneficiaries — servicemen and detainees.
The publication and documentation of the investigative activities of the Coalition aim at drawing the attention of the relevant authorities on cases of violations of human rights due to publicity thus increasing their accountability and willingness to solve the problems and minimize the possibility of further violations.
Second Project: “Strengthening the Capacities of the Human Rights Protection Coalition”
The main objective of the project is to form an appropriate platform for publicity of factual public policies and results of public control, which will be one of the permanently acting rings of Civil Society – Government Structured Dialogue.
Specific objectives and activities of the project:
– Civil society-Government exploration and development of solutions for the human rights sphere problems of wide public interest;
– Development of the Ombudsman Coalition;
– Securing of synergies with attainment of results regarding factual public policy frameworks planned under the sub-grant program currently underway within the framework of the “Constructive Dialogue Commitment”;
– Development of recommendations to the Government, according to 7 thematic public hearings;
– Organization of public discussions in the provinces and presentation of the results of the 7 public hearings to the Civil Society and Local Government representatives.
Project Outputs
– Public hearings will focus on and will address the solutions of the human rights problems that gained widest public interest, which will be presented not only to the attention of civil society, but also to relevant government ministries and structural subdivisions and local government bodies;
– Coalition’s internal capacity development tools will be established and put into operation;
– The capacity of the Ombudsman’s Protection Coalition will be developed;
– Synergies with acquisition of results regarding grounded public policy frameworks planned under the sub-grant program currently underway within the framework of the “Constructive Dialogue Commitment” project will be secured.
