News Archive

Google may have paused their plans to support censorship in China – but it’s time they commit dropping the project for good. In August 2018, it was revealed that despite promising not to support censorship in China, Google was preparing to break their promise and launch a search engine that would comply with the Chinese government’s repressive internet regulations. The project was code-named “Dragonfly” and people around the world including journalists, human rights organizations and Google’s own employees protested the business move. In December 2018, it was leaked that Google would b…

Back in 2010, Google made a promise. The largest search engine in the world vowed that it would never support China’s internet censorship. But – skip forward to August 2018 – and it’s a different story.  It’s been revealed that Google’s preparing to go back on its word. Under the code-name ‘Project Dragonfly’, Google has been working on a secretive programme to re-launch its search engine in China – even if it means cooperating with the Chinese government’s repressive online censorship and surveillance rules. People using Google in China would be blocked from accessing banned websites …

“If I Go to Bahrain, I Will Be Tortured Again” Former Bahraini national footballer Hakeem al-Araibi is languishing in a Thai prison in grave danger of being deported back to Bahrain. There he could face an unfair trial, imprisonment and even torture. Since 2011, Hakeem has spoken out against torture and other rights abuses in Bahrain. In 2014 he fled Bahrain after being unjustly convicted of vandalizing a police station, a crime that took place while he was playing football in a televised game. He has since been granted refugee status in Australia and is playing for an Australian team. Last…

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, published the report of her visit to Armenia carried out in September 2018. The report focuses on women’s rights, gender equality and domestic violence; the human rights of disadvantaged or vulnerable groups; and accountability for past human rights violations. For more information, visit the following link. The Armenian version of the report here.

To the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Letter of Proposal Dear NA Speaker Mr. Mirzoyan, Dear Advocate-MPs, Dear MPs, There are some norms set forth in the amendments to the RA Law on the Administrative Procedure and the RA Criminal Procedure Code took effect 23 March, 2018, as well as in the RA Civil Procedure Code entered into force on 9 April 2018, that stipulate that a penalty by the court may be imposed for a maximum of 100,000 Armenian drams. These legislative amendments are directed especially against advocates. Such a legislative “lash” against human rights activities of…

Representatives of the leading civil society organizations gathered at the Parallel Civil Society Conference (PC) in Milano on 5 December. Here are the highlights of the event: The opening session of the OSCE PC this year started with a moment of silence for our colleague Vitali Safarov, who was tragically murdered by neo-Nazi group members in his home town Tbilisi.We miss you Vitali! During the sessions speakers reflected on what has been done during the Italian Chairmanship, raised their concerns and discussed priorities for the upcoming Slovakian Chairmanship. Rising security concer…

We, members of the Coordination Committee of the Civic Solidarity Platform (CSP) and other civil society representatives, are shocked by the exclusion of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from attending the opening and closing sessions of the OSCE Ministerial Council Meeting (MC) in the plenary hall as well as not being provided with an opportunity to follow the live broadcast of proceedings or to hold side events in Milano on 6 and 7 December 2018. For the first time ever, civil society representatives were refused physical access to the opening and closing sessions of the OS…

THE-STATE-OF-POLITICS-IN-ARMENIA.pdf

Elements-of-a-Good-Constitution.pdf