Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

On March 25, 2025, the RA draft law “On Persons Missing in Conditions and Circumstances Created as a Result of Military Operations” was put up for public discussion on the unified website for publication of Legal Acts' Drafts. This is an important progress, which shows how it became possible to reach a political decision to adopt a separate comprehensive draft Law guaranteeing the rights and legitimate interests of missing persons and their families as a result of nearly 20 years of advocacy by Helsinki Citizens' Assembly-Vanadzor. 

It should be noted that taking into account the constant threat of escalation of the conflict and the violation of the right of hundreds of missing persons and their families to know the fate of missing persons in the Republic of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh since the first Karabakh war, as well as the urgency of a comprehensive solution to numerous other legal, social, financial, psychological and other issues, in 2007, HCA Vanadzor initiated the development of the draft Law of the Republic of Armenia “On Missing Persons” in collaboration with representatives of state structures: The legal basis for developing the draft law were the Draft Law developed by HCA Vanadzor and the Model Law on Missing Persons developed by the International Committee of the Red Cross. 

Despite the obvious danger of resumption of hostilities, and the fact that the Draft law was ready as early as 2011, it was not included in the RA National Assembly agenda for years, being continuously considered “not urgent” and “inexpedient” by state agencies. This fact is extremely worrying, as in the conditions of numerous violated rights of missing persons and their families and unregulated legal relations in a number of fields, the adoption of the Law should have been a priority for the RA Government, and not an artificially delayed issue. 

Though the official publication of the draft Law and putting it for public discussion in 2025 is a welcoming progress, HCA Vanadzor has recorded several serious problems, which can significantly affect the realization and protection of the rights of missing persons and their families. The recorded problems and the recommendations are HERE.