YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 17, NOYAN TAPAN. The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) launched a four-day training course on September 15-18 for Armenian human defenders on how to monitor and report on the freedom of assembly. "Freedom of peaceful assembly is a cornerstone of democratic society," said Lydia Grigoreva of the ODIHR's Focal Point for Human Rights Defenders and National Human Rights Institutions."By improving the skills of human rights defenders to monitor public gatherings and report on how the freedom of assembly is respected, we intend to contribute to strengthening dialogue with national authorities on how to better protect freedom of assembly at the national and local level," she added. According to a press release of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, the training is designed to enable human rights defenders to monitor how Armenia's freedom of assembly legislation and international standards in this field are being implemented in practice. Following the training course, human rights defenders will monitor assemblies throughout the country for six months. Their observations will be compiled in a report that will be submitted to the authorities.

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