In early January the OSCE and the European Union announced a new joint project aimed at supporting democratic general elections in Armenia in 2012 and 2013. Journalists are now invited to participate in the official launching of one of the important project components that will enhance the capacities of the Armenian Human Rights Defender’s Office for the general elections. The event will take place tomorrow, 15 March Thursday at 15.00 at the premises of the OSCE Office in Yerevan (Sundukyan 64/1).

In the course of the event, an implementation agreement will be signed between the OSCE Office in Yerevan and the Human Rights Defender’s Office, which envisages establishing six regional offices of the latter, maintaining the operation of a hotline for registration of alleged human rights violations and establishing Rapid Reaction Groups to ensure prompt mobile response to alleged violations during the elections and pre-election campaign.

Ambassador Andrey Sorokin, Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, Mr. Onno Simmons, Charge d’Affaires of the EU Delegation to Armenia, and Mr. Karen Andreasyan, the Armenian Human Rights Defender will participate in the event.  

The overall Elections project in Armenia is worth 1.7 million Euro and will be implemented by the OSCE Office in Yerevan with the financial support of the European Union..