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On July 18, the Chair of the RA NA Standing Committee on Health Care Narek Zeynalyan and the Deputy Chair of the Committee Lusine Badalyan met with the Head of Office of the Council of Europe in Yerevan Martina Schmidt and the Senior Project Officer of the Protection of Human Rights in Biomedicine II Meri Katvalyan.

Narek Zeynalyan highly valued the role of the Council of Europe in the protection of human rights and the development of democratic institutions in Armenia and highlighted the importance of cooperation with the Council of Europe Office in Yerevan.

The steps aimed at making the joint work with the RA Parliament more practical and systematic were discussed, the necessity to increase public awareness of the European standards of human rights and ethical principles in the field of biomedicine was highlighted.

Meri Katvalyan presented the Protection of Human Rights in Biomedicine II project implemented by the Council of Europe, the aim of which is to bring Armenia’s legislation, institutions and practice more in line with European standards in the fields of human rights, rule of law and democracy. Narek Zeynalyan assured that the RA legislation in the field of healthcare is almost entirely based on the provisions of the Convention on Protection of Human Rights and Biomedicine. Issues regarding the process of ratification of the convention were discussed.

The work carried out to provide quality healthcare services to persons deprived of their liberty in the penitentiary system, the development of capacity development programmes in the healthcare sector and the continuous implementation of trainings were also emphasized.

In the near future, an arrangement was reached to meet again with the participation of the representatives of the Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs to discuss the directions of cooperation in different formats.