Armenia needs more effort to ensure Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians`social  integration - ECRI 

ArmInfo.  The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), a Council of Europe independent expert body, has published today its conclusions on the implementation by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia of its  recommendations provided in 2023, for which priority follow-up was  requested.

Armenia

For Armenia, the first priority recommendation to the authorities was  to engage in awareness-raising activities on the importance of  diversity and tolerance in society by supporting concrete actions in  co-operation with the Human Rights Defender and relevant civil  society representatives from different backgrounds, including ethnic,  religious and sexual minorities, with the aim of preventing and  combating racist and LGBTI-phobic hate speech, hate-motivated  violence and discrimination. ECRI takes note of the efforts made and  the initial steps taken, including in the framework of the Armenia's  Action plan on the human rights protection national strategy 2023-25,  but concludes that its recommendation has only been partially  implemented.  The second priority recommendation for Armenia was to  adopt an Integration Strategy accompanied by suitable financial  resources and capacity-building to ensure effective support actions  for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. ECRI was informed by the  Armenian authorities of several actions taken to respond to the  unprecedented humanitarian challenge due to the large-scale  displacement of over 100,000 Karabakh Armenians as a result of  Azerbaijan's military operation in the region on 19 and 20 September  2023. While acknowledging the challenges faced by the Armenian  authorities and taking positive note of quick relief responses  through cash assistance as well as measures aimed at facilitating  access to social protection, expanding access to healthcare, and  ensuring education for displaced children, ECRI concludes that, in  the present state of affairs, its recommendation has not yet been  implemented.

Azerbaijan

In its 2023 report on Azerbaijan, the first priority recommendation   to the authorities was to bring the competences, independence and  effectiveness of the Commissioner for human rights (Ombudsman) fully  in line with ECRI's standards, by ensuring a transparent selection  and appointment procedure of the Ombudsman; establishing a separate  entity within the Ombudsman's office to deal with non-discrimination  and equality-related work and complaints; and to increase the  capacity of that office's staff.  While the fact that the Ombudsman  is now elected by Parliament is a step in the right direction, ECRI  is of the view that the procedure currently enshrined in law is not  sufficiently transparent, and the executive can still influence the  selection process decisively, notably during the phase of nomination  or pre-selection of candidates by the President of Azerbaijan. ECRI  recognises that some action has been taken to strengthen the  Ombudsman but concludes that its recommendation has been partially  implemented.  The second priority recommendation was to set up a  comprehensive data-collection system for cases of racist and  LGBTI-phobic hate speech and hate crime, and make this data be made  available to the public. ECRI regrets to note that no steps have been  taken to set up a system to produce fully disaggregated data on hate  speech and hate crime, by category of offence, type of hate  motivation, target group, as well as judicial follow-up and outcome,  or to make such data publicly available. It concludes that this  recommendation has not been implemented.

Georgia

For Georgia, the first priority recommendation to the authorities was  to significantly increase the number of hours of teaching of Georgian  as a second language in minority schools at primary and secondary  level. ECRI was informed that the Bilingual Education Programme  launched in 2020 was intensified and expanded, with the number of  preschools involved having gone from 15 to 34, and the number of  participating non- Georgian-language schools increased from 35 to  169, out of a total of 300 such schools.  ECRI shares the view of the  Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the protection of  national minorities (FCNM), which in 2024 welcomed the authorities'  willingness to improve the quality of Georgian-language teaching by  putting in place a bilingual education model, while preserving the  teaching and learning of minority languages. ECRI commends the  authorities for their significant efforts and concludes that this  recommendation has been fully implemented.

The second priority recommendation was to form an inter-agency  committee, which would include representatives of the Public  Defender's office (Ombudsman's office), international organisations  and relevant civil society organisations, in order to implement the  equality part of the National Human Rights Strategy 2022-30. ECRI  received no information about an inter-agency committee, or a similar  mechanism having been set up, or about any plans to establish such a  body. ECRI regrets this, as the creation of such a forum would enable  a structured and formalised dialogue between the authorities and  civil society, in particular. ECRI considers that the recommendation  has not been implemented.