After visiting a number of inmates at the Vardashen Correctional Facility now on hunger strike to protest a number of issues, especially discriminatory practices when it comes to deciding which inmates can be transferred to more ‘open’ facilities, Armenia’s Human Rights Ombudsman Karen Andreasyan states that he has urged the justice ministry to take immediate steps to resolve these issues.

Andreasyan has also called on the inmates to end their hunger strike due to avoid unforeseen health concerns and hopes that prison authorities and the public have been apprised of the problems faced by the hunger strikers.