On December 9, 2019, the UN Committee against Torture published a list of issues for Armenia.
The Committee also referred to the issues raised in the 2019 report by the New Generation Humanitarian NGO and the Eurasian Coalition on Male Health presented to the UN Committee against Torture, in particular:
Point 17. With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations (paras. 31–32), please provide updated information on:
(c) Steps taken to improve the authority of prison administrations, reduce the impact of the criminal subculture and informal hierarchy in prisons and their influence within the penitentiary system and put an end to the discrimination and violence against homosexual prisoners and sex offenders;
It should be noted that in order to solve this problem, New Generation Humanitarian NGO has repeatedly submitted proposals for cooperation to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia within the framework of its projects implemented in 2018-2019 for the purpose of conducting trainings for the representatives of penitentiary institutions of the RA Ministry of Justice. The selected topics of the courses included human rights, human rights protection mechanisms, prevention of stigma and discrimination, torture, taking into consideration the existence of differentiated and discriminatory attitude in penitentiary institutions.
Despite the initiative taken by the Organization, the RA Ministry of Justice has not taken any steps so far to cooperate and participate in the courses organized by the Organization.
New Generation Humanitarian NGO will continue to be consistent and involved in the processes of prevention of torture in Armenia.