Epress.am News from Armenia
The impact of international human rights organizations' reports on Armenia is obvious, as such reports draw the attention of different governments and organizations supporting the country, said Helsinki Association for Human Rights President Mikael Danielyan, commenting on the Human Rights Watch's recent report, in an interview with Epress.am.
"For example, the US State Department pays attention to such reports and that country's support to Armenia, including financial [assistance], undoubtedly also depends on the opinion of such authoritative organizations," he said, emphasizing that the section on Armenia in this year's report is quite good and strict.
Nevertheless, the main issues raised in the report do not change from year to year, since, according to Danielyan, the Armenian authorities are not willing to take steps to improve the human rights situation in the country.
Speaking on one of the main problems addressed in the report, that of torture and ill-treatment in police custody, the human rights activist said that "it hasn't change and won't change." In his opinion, in 90% of criminal cases, law enforcement officials use torture to coerce confessions and incriminating statements.
Danielyan considered it important that information about the demonstration initiatied by Shant Harutyunyan from the perspective of human rights violations was included in the report, that Harutyunyan was beaten by police and that the allegations have not led to an investigation by the authorities.
Full interview in the video below (in Armenian only).