Minister Zeynalyan participates in discussion entitled "The situation of ensuring human rights in places of deprivation of liberty"

Today, Minister of Justice Artak Zeynalyan participated in a discussion entitled "The situation of ensuring human rights in places of deprivation of liberty" organised by the Office of the Human Rights Defender. Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia Arman Tatoyan; Head of the Delegation of the European Union, Ambassador Piotr Switalski; Acting UNDP Resident Representative in the Republic of Armenia Dmitry Mariyasin and Public Defender of Georgia Nino Lomjaria participated in the meeting.

Greeting the participants of the meeting, Minister Zeynalyan expressed his gratitude for organising a discussion in such a format and noted that it provided an opportunity to assess the problems existing in the penitentiary system more comprehensively and identify the future steps for the solution to those problems.

Within the context of the topic of discussion, the Minister touched upon the activities of the Council for Juvenile Justice, the purpose of which is to improve the mechanisms for access to justice for children, as well as the reforms implemented in the field of prison healthcare, the ultimate goal of which is to integrate prison healthcare into a unified public healthcare system.

Summing up his speech, Artak Zeynalyan noted that the reports of the Human Rights Defender and the observations of civil society also underlie the reforms being implemented in the penitentiary system, adding that the Ministry of Justice does not try to conceal the problems existing in the penitentiary system, but is trying to achieve solutions to the problems through equivalent approaches and by setting priorities.

Afterwards, the extraordinary public report of the Human Rights Defender entitled "Ensuring the rights of women and minors in the penitentiary system" was presented to the participants, followed by a discussion between the participants.