On November 23, Government-Civil Society dialogue was held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and the United Nations Development Program Country Office within the procedures of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the purpose of which was to discuss the process of implementation by the Republic of Armenia of the recommendations accepted within the UPR framework. Armenia supported 155 recommendations, large part of which has been implemented or is being implemented.

Ashot Hovakimian, Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia, Head of the Armenia’s delegation on presentation of RA Second Universal Periodic Review delivered opening remarks at the session.

During the meeting, Jean-Claude Vignoli, Director of UPR Info headquartered in Geneva presented the world’s best practice in the field and challenges.

Representatives of government agencies delivered remarks during the dialogue, thoroughly presenting progress in human rights field. Afterwards, the dialogue continued on the process of implementation of the recommendations received and responses to them within the format of comments and inquires.

Brief information: UPR is the UN mechanism, established in 2006, which periodically examines the human rights performance of all UN Member States. A review of a State is based on a National Report prepared by the State, the UN treaty bodies’ reports, and summary of information submitted by other national and international stakeholders – NGOs. At the end of each review, the UN UPR Working Group adopts an outcome document, which summarizes the results of the review process, recommendations, presented by the UN Member States, for the improvement of human rights performance of the state.