On September 19, the Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan received Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.

Welcoming the guest, Minister Mnatsakanyan said that Armenia and the Council of Europe are united by common universal values and the cooperation with the Commissioner’s Office is an important priority for Armenia.

The interlocutors commended the first visit of Dunja Mijatović to Armenia in her capacity as CoE Commissioner for Human Rights, noting that it provides a good opportunity to get a first hand knowledge of the human rights situation on the ground and outline the ways of further cooperation. Both sides highly appreciated the role of Armenia’s active and viable civil society in this process.

Armenia’s legislative reforms, issues related to human rights monitoring, as well as the perspectives of deepening cooperation between Armenia and the Council of Europe were in the focus of interlocutors during the meeting.

A special reference was made to the protection of the rights of women, children and socially vulnerable groups. Zohrab Mnatsakanyan noted that participation of women in country's public life is quite apparent and significant. The Minister also added that Armenia has almost finished the process of preparing through extensive public discussions of the National Action Plan aimed at implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on the role of women in peace processes and conflict settlement.

Minister Mnatsakanyan presented to the Commissioner Mijatović the priorities of the Armenian side in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution, stressing that the main beneficiaries of the conflict settlement are the people, who have a clear goal to leave peacefully in a secure future and who contribute with their daily activities to the extent possible to the fulfillment of that goal. The Foreign Minister of Armenia emphasized that Artsakh has voluntarily joined the core UN human rights documents and CoE Conventions, has ratified and is successfully implementing them. He added that Armenia continues to consider the human rights as universal values, and therefore cooperation for the protection of human rights should also be universal, without any exception.