Representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Public Defender’s Office, the Human Rights Defender’s Office, the Prosecutor General’s Office, Office of the Representative on international legal matters, Penitentiary Service, Prison Medicine Centre and experts from the Council of Europe met in Yerevan to discuss how detainees’ rights can be better protected through stronger complaint mechanisms.

The discussion held on 25 September focused on the findings of the need’s assessment of the Council of Europe, highlighting positive steps in strengthening internal oversight mechanisms within detention facilities and legislative reforms laying the ground for more accountability and transparency. The discussion centred on ways forward to overcoming identified challenges that hinder the effectiveness of these mechanisms in practice. These challenges include ongoing obstacles to ensuring confidentiality, inconsistent access to complaint channels, length of legal proceedings and particular difficulties for foreign nationals to making use of the existing legal remedies.

As a result of the discussion, practical recommendations were presented to address these challenges, including stronger legal guarantees, greater independence and resources for oversight bodies, and more transparent, accessible procedures. Participants agreed that the reform must combine legal changes with practical steps such as training, capacity-building and awareness-raising to ensure detainees’ rights are effectively upheld in practice.

This event was part of the Council of Europe project “Further Strengthening the Protection of the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty”, implemented under the Action Plan for Armenia 2023–2026.