On January 23 in Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council discussed the national report of Armenia in the third cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The official delegation of the Republic of Armenia headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Artak Apitonian arrived in Geneva to present the report.

The delegation included the Deputy Minister of Justice Christine Grigoryan, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Janna Andreasyan, Deputy Prosecutor General David Melkonyan, Head of Police Headquarters Armen Ghukasyan, Head of the Central Electoral Commission, Scientific Examiner, Head of the Central Election Commission Tigran Mukuchyan and officials from the Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports.

The Deputy Foreign Minister introduced the report, touching upon the steps taken with regards to the human rights, legislative reforms and best practices in Armenia. In his remarks, Artak Apitonian reaffirmed the determination of the Armenian authorities to continue strengthening human rights and democracy in the country as an unwavering commitment of the Government of Armenia and highlighted the importance of strengthening the cooperation with various UN bodies, particularly in the context of fulfilling international commitments undertaken by Armenia.

About a hundred representatives of the UN member-states delivered remarks reflecting the human rights protection in Armenia. Numerous countries commended the democratic progress and the fight against corruption in Armenia since the Velvet Revolution presented questions and proposals.

On their turn, the members of the Armenian delegation introduced their achievements and current challenges in the sphere of human rights protection, answered the questions of the delegates of the UN member-states and provided necessary clarifications.

According to the UPR rules of procedure, the recommendations of the UN member states will be comprehensively studied and Armenia's position in this regard will be presented during the June session of the Human Rights Council.

Reference. The UPR is a UN mechanism established in 2006, which regularly examines the human rights performance in all the UN member states. The country review is based on information provided by the National Report prepared by the government of the Stare under review, the reports of the UN treaty bodies and other stakeholders including national and international NGOs. By the end of the monitoring, the UN UPR Working Group prepares a report summarizing the results of the monitoring, as well as recommendations made by the UN member states aimed at improving the human rights performance of the state under review.

Remarks by the Deputy Foreign Minister Artak Apitonian are available at the following link.

The full discussion of the report is available at the following link.