Integration of human rights and ethical principles into medical care is crucial for guaranteeing equitable and dignified access of population to various healthcare services. This can be accomplished by raising awareness and enhancing the knowledge and capacities of both healthcare and legal professionals allowing them to apply those standards in their daily practices. The Office of Human Rights Defender plays a crucial role in this context as the latter has a key function in monitoring the protection of human rights by the state and facilitating public dialogue on various human rights issues.
To address different aspects of the right to health protection and other human rights and ethical aspects enshrined in the Council of Europe Oviedo Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, as well as the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, around 25 representatives of the HRDO participated in a two-day capacity building training on 13-14 April 2024, in Hankavan, Armenia.
The opening remarks of the event were delivered by Maxime Longangué, the Head of the Council of Europe Office in Yerevan and Anahit Manasyan, the Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia.
Maxime Longangué thanked the Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia Ms Anahit Manasyan for the strong cooperation between the HRDO and the Council of Europe and her direct engagement and support in promoting human rights dialogue in Armenia in general, and on the principles of the Oviedo Convention, in particular.
Anahit Manasyan highlighted the effective work with the Council of Europe Office in Yerevan and emphasized the importance of such trainings both in terms of enhancing the capacities and knowledge of the staff of the HRDO and raising the awareness of the public on health-related matters.
She further reaffirmed her commitment to continue advocacy in favor of ratification of the Oviedo Convention by Armenia, which is the only international legally binding instrument addressing human rights in the field of healthcare and stressed the importance of conducting wide-range awareness-raising campaigns in order to form a real understanding of the rights guaranteed by the Convention among the public before the ratification.
The capacity-building was designed to capacitate the staff of the Office of Human Rights Defender with the necessary skills and knowledge on the main principles of the Oviedo Convention and its Additional Protocols with a very specific focus on the issues of access to healthcare services, age-limits for reproduction and possible discrimination, the right to know genetic ancestry presented by Professor Fabio Macioce, the international consultant of the Council of Europe. ECHR jurisprudence on legal capacity and protection of autonomy and freedom of persons with mental health problems in light of the execution of ECHR case law “Nikolyan vs Armenia” was presented by Boglárka Benkó, a senior lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights.
Council of Europe and the HRDO will continue close cooperation towards further promoting public dialogue on those issues and safeguarding human rights in the field of healthcare for the benefit of the population.
The capacity-building training was organised by the Council of Europe, as part of its Project on “Protection of Human Rights in Biomedicine II” implemented within the Council of Europe Action Plan for Armenia 2023-2026.
