On September 26, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia held a discussion on the draft of Armenia’s Second Universal Periodic Review to be presented within the framework of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) with the participation of government agencies, NGOs and civil society representatives.

In the opening remarks, Deputy Foreign Minister Artak Apitonyan touched upon the steps of the Armenian Government towards strengthening human rights, reiterating the readiness of Armenia to continue close cooperation with the UN agencies responsible for Human Rights in order to ensure the implementation of international obligations. Karine Sujayan, the Head of the Human Rights and Humanitarian Issues Department presented the requirements for the states with respect to the preparatory work of the report.

The participants discussed the draft of the report according to the presented fields, including the implementation of legislative and judicial reforms, fights against corruption, sustainable development and a number of other issues. 

The representatives of NGOs raised important issues as well as introduced their suggestions for including them in the draft of the report. An agreement was reached to present notes and suggestions in written form as well.

Reference: In January 2020 the Republic of Armenia will present the third round of the national report of its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Council of Human Rights. The UPR procedure gives an opportunity to each country to present the undertaken steps that are directed at the improvement of the situation with human rights in a given country and the implementation of international obligations in that sphere. 

Besides the national report within the UPR framework, two other reports will be presented, based on the proposals by the non-governmental organizations, international monitoring bodies working in the field of human rights, particularly proposals by the UN treaty bodies and through special procedures, presented to the country.