The issue of protection of human rights of persons with mental health issues is one of the priority areas of the Council of Europe. It is crucial to promote the autonomy of any person with mental health issues and support them to that end.  

On 17 June 2024, the Council of Europe Office in Yerevan, in close cooperation with the Office of the Representative on International Legal Matters of the Republic of Armenia, organised  a follow-up expert discussion “The Rights of Persons being Declared as Legally Incapable as a Result of Mental Health issues” to discuss the main findings and recommendations of an expert report and to further contribute to the execution of the judgment of the ECtHR in the case “Nikolyan vs. Armenia”.  , The relevant national stakeholders, including the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, and the Human Rights Defender’s Office as well as different civil society organizations have participated in the discussion.

The opening remarks of the event were delivered by Mr Maxime Longangué, Head of Council of Europe Office in Yerevan, Ms Laurence Lwoff, Head of Human Rights and Biomedicine Division of the Council of Europe, Ms Tatevik Stepanyan, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of RA and Mr Liparit Drmeyan, Head of the Office of the Representative on International Legal Matters.

Mr Maxime Longangué emphasized the importance of the topic not only from the perspective of protection of people, but also from the perspective of the effective execution of ECtHR judgements in Armenia. 

Ms Tatevik Stepanyan has highlighted the importance of the discussion mentioning that the addressing of the challenges in the field of legal capacity is a key priority of the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Mr Liparit Drmeyan has highlighted that the prepared document will be guiding document for the Armenian authorities in their efforts to execute the abovementioned judgement, as well implement the reform to promote the autonomy of the persons with mental health issues. 
Some of the recommendations in the report include proper assessment of legal capacity, establishment of tailor-made restrictions of legal capacity, review of restrictions of legal capacity, as well as improvement of guardianship and trusteeship system in Armenia. 

The discussion significantly contributed to the reform agenda of the Government of the Republic of Armenia in the context of the protection of rights of persons with mental health issues and provided an effective platform for a discussion and exchange of views between respective state and non-state institutions on the revision of the regime of legal incapacity in accordance with international standards.

As a note- the case “Nikolyan v. Armenia” brought before the European Court of Human Rights showed that although certain safeguards were put in place in Armenia to ensure protection of persons with mental health issues considered as legally incapable , the Armenian legal framework should be further enhanced to ensure better protection of these persons.

The expert discussion was organised in the framework of the Council of Europe Cooperation Project “Protection of Human Rights in Biomedicine II” implemented within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Armenia 2023-2026.

Background information :

The Council of Europe is supporting the national authorities in execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, including the judgment of the ECtHR in the case “Nikolyan vs. Armenia” with regards to the protection of human rights of persons with mental health problems.

An extensive report on the “Analysis of domestic legal framework and practice on the restriction of legal capacity of persons with mental health issues: Execution of ECtHR judgement Nikolyan vs Armenia” with the recommendations for national authorities on the possible improvements of national legal framework in Armenia, was prepared by a national consultant of the Council of Europe. This work is part of the Council of Europe comprehensive technical support in this very important field, and follows the first expert discussion on the topic of protection issues of the persons with mental health issues recognized as legally incapable in the framework of the execution of the judgment of the ECtHR case-law “Nikolyan vs. Armenia”, held in February of 2024.