Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

On 22 October 2010, the Republic of Armenia (hereinafter referred to as RA) ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereinafter referred to as CRPD).

According to Article 35 of the CRPD, “Each State Party shall submit to the Committee, through the Secretary General of the United Nations (hereinafter referred to as UN), a comprehensive report on measures taken to give effect to its obligations under the present Convention and on the progress -26 - made in that regard, within two years after the entry into force of the present Convention for the State Party concerned”.

According to Article 36 of the CRPD, “Each report shall be considered by the Committee, which shall make such suggestions and general recommendations on the report as it may consider appropriate and shall forward these to the State Party concerned...”.

The agenda of the 17^th session of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereinafter referred to as the Committee), dated 29-30 March 2017, included, inter alia, the presentation of the RA report on the implementation of the CRPD. On 7 April 2017, the Committee presented its concluding observations on the RA report.  

In the concluding observations, welcoming the State’s measures and efforts aimed at changes, the Committee, nevertheless, expressed its concerns on a number of yet unresolved issues, in particular, the fact that the State party had not yet ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention, the fact that the law on legal equality had not been adopted, the insufficient level of access to justice, low rates of participation of persons with disabilities in political life, violation of the right to liberty and security and a number of other issues, which we will touch upon in a more detailed manner in this report.

The report sums up the implementation of the Committee’s recommendations to the Republic of Armenia, with a focus on the rights of persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities.

The sources of the report are as follows: the RA report on the implementation of the CRPD, concluding observations of the Committee on Armenia’s initial report, the alternative report by Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor office (hereinafter referred to as HCA Vanadzor) on the situation of the rights of persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, RA legislative acts, mass media publications, information received from state bodies, conversations with employees of psychiatric institutions.

The report has the following structure: a summary of the developments recorded in connection with the issues reflected in the concluding observations, the Committee’s more detailed observation regarding the relevant articles on securing the rights of persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, description of the factual situation in Armenia and recommendations.

Read the full report HERE