During the ten-year activity conference of the Human Rights Defender in the torture prevention sector, President of the Armenian Helsinki Committee Avetik Ishkhanyan said, “As local and international investigations show, cases of inhumane treatment and torture continue in Armenia. The situation with the police is especially worrisome. Society typically learned about poor treatment and torture in the police when it would have a tragic end, and those who were subject to violence were political activists who spoke about that.”
Ishkhanyan said that as a rule, such instances were not subject to criminal cases, or a criminal case was filed but it was then shortened. The situation, according to Ishkhanyan, has changed since 2001, when Armenia joined the Council of Europe. However, there have not been any serious changes.
The first Human Rights Defender Larisa Alaverdyan said that there is expired medicine in detention centers. Even aspirin is a problem that should be available everywhere and not past its date of expiration. She spoke about violations of women’s rights within detention centers, and said that the situation has gotten worse over the years. “Only 4-5 adolescents were in detention centers as of April, and we could have solved one of the most important issues over these past few months: to bring them to a reasonable social level psychologically.”
Hripsime Jebejyan
