Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

On December 2, 2019, Ofelya Zalyan, Project Manager of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor, took part in the meeting of Civil Society Platform working group on Struggle against Torture in Bratislava and on December 4, she participated in the OSCE Parallel Civil Conference conducted ahead of the 26th OSCE Ministerial Council.

The Conference adopted the Bratislava Declaration on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. The Declaration presents a comprehensive analysis of the main restrictions of the freedom of assembly across the OSCE region and lists recommendations to the OSCE participating States and OSCE bodies on strengthening the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. 

In addition, the Parallel Conference endorsed a document on problems of environmental defenders faced in advocating for the right to healthy environment and struggle against the climate crisis. 

The Parallel Conference also adopted a Statement on the occasion of the upcoming Normandie Summit scheduled to be held on 9 December 2019 in Paris. The statement expresses concern about the level of civic freedoms in eastern Ukraine. 

Finally, the Parallel Conference adopted a Statement condemning this week’s new Russian legislation that expands the “foreign agents” concept to physical persons. 

Information on the Parallel Conference and the adopted documents are available HERE

Photo taken from https://www.osce.org/