The military were rounding up men in the streets and were dispatching them to the frontlines of the war that Armenians were waging against Azeris. Communities of religious minorities were brutally assaulted and battered as freedom fighters (from the Karabakh war veterans’ organization affiliated with the Defense Minister) would make forced entry into the premises of churches other than Armenian Apostolic ones and would beat up worshippers, seize property and take men to military police offices. First mass-scale election rigging was taking place in the parliamentary elections and the Constitution that gave powers of a monarch to the President imposed on people through stolen elections was taking effect. Political activists were being arrested for civil disobedience.
In 1975 in Helsinki the European countries signed the Helsinki Accord, whereby each country took on an obligation to defend human rights. The Soviet Union joined the Accord since the latter recognized inviolability of borders, hence, in fact, the postwar Soviet borders.
On May 12, 1976, Professor Yuri Orlov announced in Moscow the establishment of a Moscow group that would assist the compliance with the obligations under the Helsinki Accord. That marked the beginning the Helsinki human rights movement in the Soviet Union. The founding of Helsinki groups in Ukraine, Lithuania, Georgia and Armenia followed soon.
Helsinki Committee of Armenia in the framework of Human Rights Education: Step Ahead Project has organized training of trainers from August 11 to August 17, 2010 in Aghveran. Participants of the training were volunteers and representatives of non-governmental organizations from different regions of Armenia. Ihar Kuzminich, ODIHR Expert and Director of Innovation Center of Legal Education was invited to conduct the training. The project is being financed by the European Union.
The aim of the training was to assist youth from regions actively involved in human rights activities to acquire trainer’s skills and get familiar with methods of transferring information through informal learning.
The opening speech was made by A. Ishkhanyan, President of Helsinki Committee of Armenia. He greeted all participants and talked about aims of the training and expected activities. Later, Ihar Kuzminich, ODIHR Expert/Trainer presented the training agenda and discussed with the participants main concepts by paying particular attention to main differences between interactive strategies and academic education in the human rights field.
The operation of the website is financially supported by Open Society Institute /Budapest/ 