When women's rights and minority rights overlap: Armenia's Human Rights Defender brings the two together

15 SEPTEMBER 2026 YEREVAN, ARMENIA

Women and persons from national minority communities, often face discrimination for overlapping reasons and the challenges get harder to address when they're treated as separate issues. To look at this more closely, Armenia's Human Rights Defender's Office brought together two of its advisory...

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From the classroom to the bench: three students win Armenia's first constitutional moot court

15 SEPTEMBER 2026 YEREVAN, ARMENIA

Narek, Arthur and Roman sit in front of us, shining with pride and joy. For the three law students, this is more than just a victory. They have won the first moot court competition on constitutional justice ever held in Armenia and argued not in a lecture hall, but before real judges of the...

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Congress President Gunn Marit Helgesen notes advance of decentralisation of power across Europe

International Day of Democracy: democracy is experienced first and foremost locally

Council of Europe 14 SEPTEMBER 2026 STRASBOURG

“Today, democracy is under strain all over the world – democratic backsliding, a loss of citizens’ trust in democratic institutions and politicians, war, environmental degradation and economic pressures are all contributing to the erosion of democracy,” underlined Gunn Marit Helgesen, President...

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Strengthening the transplantation system in Armenia: reinforcing the fight against organ trafficking

4 September 2026 Yerevan, Armenia

For the specialists involved in the policy development on organ transplantation and fight against trafficking in human organs, the legal assessment of Armenia’s legislation against the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs was a necessity to prevent abuses and protect...

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Breaking the Cycle: how empathy and education are transforming probation in Armenia

17 AUGUST 2026 YEREVAN, ARMENIA

For years, A.P. (name changed to protect his privacy) was, in the eyes of his family, a person full of life. He was fiercely loyal, deeply attached to his family, and never afraid to stand up for what he believed was right. But those closest to him also knew another side of his personality. When...

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Rebuilding lives: Armenia’s Probation Service launches landmark rehabilitation programme

24 JULY 2026 YEREVAN, ARMENIA

For people leaving Armenia's prisons, and probation system, breaking a cycle of substance use has long meant relying on willpower alone. A new rehabilitation programme, piloted over the past year in three prisons and probation offices, is designed to change that. Developed with support from the...

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Building stronger safeguards for the rights of persons deprived of liberty through enhanced monitoring capacities

20-21 July 2026 TSAGHKADZOR, ARMENIA

For anyone held in a prison or detention centre, a great deal depends on whether someone independent is paying attention — and on whether the different bodies charged with that scrutiny actually work as one. In Armenia, several institutions share that duty, but most of the time they work apart....

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Armenia: Council of Europe’s MONEYVAL highlights robust targeted financial sanctions regime, calls for improvements in money-laundering prosecutions and asset recovery

9 July 2026 Strasbourg, France

The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body, MONEYVAL, today published a report assessing the effectiveness of Armenia’s measures against money laundering (ML), terrorist financing (TF) and proliferation financing (PF), as well as their compliance with the Financial Action Task Force...

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Insights from the Secretary General’s address to 46 European governments

“Reform is about our collective ability to make full use of the potential of the Council of Europe” – Alain Berset

Committee of Ministers 8 JULY 2026 STRASBOURG

Secretary General Alain Berset used his exchange with the Committee of Ministers to underline the political purpose of the Council of Europe’s reform: “strengthening the Council of Europe’s relevance, impact and ability to respond to today’s challenges”. The Secretary General was speaking to...

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Tracking the Illicit Assets: a high-level conference against economic crime takes place in Armenia

1-2 JULY 2026 YEREVAN, ARMENIA

Within the framework of the Armenian Platform of the European Prosecutors’ Dialogue, and on the occasion of Prosecutor’s Office Employee Day and the 108th anniversary of the founding of the Prosecutor’s Office, an international high-level two-day conference titled “Following the Trail of...

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