Human Rights Defender: No political and territorial circumstances can  prevail over need to protect human rights

ArmInfo. On May 10 in Strasbourg RA Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan discussed a number of issues  related to human rights in Armenia with Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunya Mijatovic. This was reported by the press service of the Human Rights Defender.

Particular attention was paid to the environment of intolerance among  the population, the fight against hate speech, the protection of the  rights of women and children, persons with disabilities, the  prevention of domestic violence, the proper implementation of the  principle of non-discrimination, the exclusion of the use of  disproportionate force and a number of other issues related to the  protection of human rights.  Anahit Manasyan presented to the CoE  Commissioner for Human Rights the humanitarian situation resulting  from the blocking of the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan, touched upon  issues related to the protection of the rights of the people of  Artsakh, and also raised the issue of ensuring the rights of Armenian  prisoners of war held in Azerbaijan, their return and clarification  of the fate of the missing lead.

The parties also discussed the issue of detention of servicemen of  the armed forces of Azerbaijan in Armenia on April 16. The Human  Rights Defender presented her comments on the results of their visit  and issues related to ensuring the rights of the latter. Anahit  Manasyan also spoke about the results of the study visits of the  Human Rights Defender to the border settlements of Syunik and  Gegharkunik regions, presented issues related to the security of the  local population as a result of the aggressive behavior of the  Azerbaijani armed forces, fixing violations of children's rights. In  this context, the RA Human Rights Defender emphasized that no  political and territorial circumstances can prevail over the need to  protect and guarantee human rights. <For us, as for persons carrying  out the mission of protecting human rights, in terms of protecting  rights, there should be no closed doors. Even if, due to some  situation, they are, then we must look for opportunities to open  these closed doors. Otherwise, our mission to protect human rights  cannot be considered successful," Manasyan stressed.

In turn, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe  congratulated Anahit Manasyan on taking on the responsible mission of  the Human Rights Defender and confirmed the readiness of the Council  of Europe to continue close cooperation with the Defender's  institution.  On May 11-12, Defender Anahit Manasyan will take part  in a thematic discussion in Strasbourg on the topic "Increasing the  institutional level of enforcement of court decisions" as part of a  delegation of members of the interdepartmental commission established  to ensure the organization of ongoing work arising from the European  Convention on Human Rights, including for the execution of decisions  of the European Court. Meetings are also planned with various  high-ranking officials of the Council of Europe.