AI REPORT: INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS GROUP SLAMS ARMENIA FOR NOT RESPECTING RELIGIOUS MINORITY’S RIGHTS
An international human rights watchdog on Wednesday published a new report asserting that “Jehovah’s Witnesses in Armenia face discrimination and imprisonment because of their beliefs.” London-based Amnesty International (AI) in particular writes that “many young men in the religious organization are jailed because their faith prohibits them from doing military service”.
Laurence Broers, Amnesty International’s researcher on Armenia, writes in the report (www.amnesty.org): “Young male Jehovah’s Witnesses continue to be imprisoned. Since there is no alternative civilian service in Armenia, Amnesty International considers them prisoners of conscience and calls for their immediate and unconditional release.”
AI estimates there are some 9,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in Armenia. The organization sees an alarming trend of an increased number of attacks on them in Armenia following the religious organization’s registration in 2004. In particular, AI is concerned at “the [Armenian] authorities' reported failure to fully investigate and prosecute these clear human rights abuses.”
AI reminds that as a Council of Europe member, Armenia is obliged to provide “a genuinely civilian alternative to compulsory military service.”
“But Armenia’s alternative service is still under the control of the military, making it incompatible with the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses and others,” the report says, citing data according to which as of September 26, 2007, there were 82 Jehovah’s Witnesses imprisoned as conscientious objectors in Armenia.
“All those wrongly imprisoned must be released immediately and receive adequate compensation. The Armenian authorities must also ensure that they are not denied documents necessary for them to enjoy full rights as civilians – including the right to freedom of movement and the rights to entry into public sector employment or marriage,” Broers concludes.
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- 1830 Following Sultan Mahmood's decree and the advice of the French, British, and Russian ambassadors, the Armenian Catholics in Turkey were given a Patriarchate and their own administrative organization.
- 1888 Birth, in Constantinople, of the actor Vahram Papazyan. He is considered to have no equal in the Armenian theater.
- 1906 Birth of composer Ashot Satian. He died in 1958.
- 1911 Birth of theater personality Gevorg Ashughyan.
- 1990 Start of hostilities between Armenian and Azeri Turkish forces near Raskh.
- 2001 The French Senate recognizes the 1915 Genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
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