On October 3 in Strasbourg the delegation of the National Assembly had a meeting with Mr. Thomas Hammerberg, Commissioner for human rights of the Council of Europe. At the meeting referring to his upcoming visit to Armenia, the Commissioner said that the aim of the visit is to make a report about the situation of human rights in Armenia. Mr. Hammerberg is ready to cooperate with the structures being involved in the issues on human rights in Armenia. During the visit he expects to hear the views of the representatives of the authorities, as well as the opposition.

The members of the delegation of the National Assembly presented their views on the protection of human rights in Armenia. Mr. Davit Harutyunyan, head of the delegation, stressing the Commissioner’s work, noted that the reports are always a stimulus for the improvement of the situation in the sphere of the human rights. At the same time Mr. Davit Harutyunyan raised the question of the violation of human rights in Azerbaijan and Turkey. Highlighting the availability of the free and independent mass media, Mr. Raffi Hovhannisyan, noted that the situation is not ambiguous: the electronic mass media, in contrast with printed press, are not distinguished with plurality. Mr. Mher Shahgeldyan drew the Commissioner’s attention to the fact that Azerbaijan does not solve the problem of the refugees and displaced persons, roughly violating their rights using as a playing card their bad situation for political interests.

At the same day in the PACE session Mr. Raffi Hovhannisyan, the member of the Armenian parliamentary delegation, delivered a speech on the report “Humanitarian Crisis in Darfur,” finding unacceptable the genocide as a crime against mankind. Within that framework Mr. Hovhannisyan denounced also the Armenian Genocide.