Category: News

This report examines the situation for ethnic Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh for the period starting with the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020 and through the Azerbaijani military offensive against Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023 and its aftermath. Through an international fact-finding effort that included hundreds of witness interviews and open-source data, the analysis aims to answer why there are no ethnic Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh as of May 2024. It documents how people in Nagorno-Karabakh were intentionally subjected to regular attacks, intimidation, deprivation of basic rights and adequate living conditions, and forced displacement. The evidence demonstrates that the Azerbaijani state acted upon a comprehensive, methodically implemented strategy to empty Nagorno-Karabakh of its ethnic Armenian population and historical and cultural presence.

About the Report

This fact-finding report was jointly prepared by Freedom House, International Partnership for Human Rights, Democracy Development Foundation, Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly – Vanadzor, Protection of Rights without Borders NGO, Law Development and Protections Foundation, and Truth Hounds. Media Diversity Institute conducted the open-source investigation and verification. Talin Hitik provided substantial support editing the summary and the larger report. Anoush Baghdassarian made a significant contribution to editing several sections of the larger report. The methodology and questionnaires were prepared by Democracy Development Foundation, International Partnership for Human Rights, and Truth Hounds. The fact-finding mission was made possible with the support of Open Society Foundations and Freedom House. The fact-finding mission was coordinated by the Democracy Development Foundation.

The report is available on the Freedom House website.

Source: Human Rights Watch

(Yerevan, October 31, 2024) – The Armenian government’s bill for the mandatory installation of video surveillance systems with 24-hour police access throughout the capital, Yerevan, is unjustified and interferes with privacy and other rights, Human Rights Watch said today. 

The bill, which passed its first parliamentary review in June 2024, requires private entities in Yerevan to install the cameras and provide police with live feed and access to recordings on demand. Officials have also indicated they intend to use artificial intelligence (AI) video analytics to monitor the recordings.

“Widespread, indiscriminate video surveillance would inevitably lead to unjustified intrusions on privacy and cannot be defended as a measure necessary to improve public security in a democracy,” said Giorgi Gogia, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Mass surveillance in public spaces would have a chilling effect on fundamental civil and political rights.”

Armenian authorities posted the bill on the government’s website in December 2022, but the government only greenlighted it in April 2024. Parliament is expected to vote on the bill before the end of the year.

More on the HRW website.

Seoul, March 19th – A panel of global experts, convened today to discuss the critical issue of internet shutdowns and their impact on democracy and the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The panel discussions, titled “Access for democracy: Preventing internet shutdowns and strengthening democracy,” was part of the Summit for Democracy Conference held in Seoul on March 18-20, 2024.

The session highlighted the contradiction between the rapid digitization of societies and the continuing practice by some authorities to suspend or throttle internet services during significant national events. With countries representing half of the world’s population heading to polls in 2024, the risk of arbitrary and authoritarian shutdowns looms larger than ever, necessitating a collaborative approach to safeguard internet access.

Speakers, including Kanbar Hossein-Bor from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Carly Ramsey from Cloudflare, Raman Jit Singh Chima from Access Now, Miraj Chowdhury from Digitally Right Bangladesh, including Artur Papyan from Media Diversity Institute – Armenia, and moderated by Brittany Piovesan of Internews, shared insights and experiences from their work and regions.

Artur Papyan underscored the complexity of identifying internet shutdowns, citing challenges such as differentiating between complete and partial shutdowns, geographical scope, and the technical nuances of internet infrastructure and ISPs, especially in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh war.

The panel discussed various strategies to combat internet shutdowns, from leveraging statements by bodies like the Freedom Online Coalition to Cloudflare’s transparency reports, which provide crucial data for understanding the occurrence of shutdowns.