Human Rights Watch, World Report 2025.

Country Report: Armenia (Part 1)

​Armenian authorities continued to face significant challenges in providing social security to over 100,000 ethnic Armenians displaced from Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region. Insecurities over the still unresolved conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan dominated public discourse throughout the year. 
 
Frequent opposition protests demanding the prime minister’s resignation presented public order challenges for law enforcement, whose use of crowd control weapons in at least one instance resulted in dozens seeking medical help highlighting ongoing concerns over accountability for police abuse. 
 
Other areas of concern include intrusive surveillance, domestic violence, discrimination against people with disabilities, and violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. 
 
In February 2024, Armenia became the 124th state party to the International Criminal Court’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute. 
 
Police Conduct 
Lack of effective accountability for law enforcement abuses persisted. 
 
On June 12, police and protesters clashed during a protest near parliament. Police reportedly exploded a large number of sonic grenades in close proximity to protesters while forcefully dispersing the crowd. Over 100 people sought medical assistance. The authorities charged 15 protesters with hooliganism, and one person for participation in mass riots. Trials were ongoing at time of writing. While the authorities investigated police conduct, they had pressed no charges at time of writing. 
 
Armenian law did not, at that time, specifically provide a basis for use of the type of sonic grenades deployed on June 12. In July, the authorities added them to the arsenal of Interior Ministry police units but classified critical information about conditions for their use. 
 
On April 15, Samvel Vardanyan, arrested after an altercation with a ruling party MP, reported that masked men assaulted him as police transported him to a detention facility. Police allegedly left Vardanyan unattended shortly before his assailants appeared to abuse him. Authorities investigated but have not charged anyone. Vardanyan was on bail awaiting trial on hooliganism and incitement charges at time of writing. 
 
Right to Privacy 
In April, the government approved legislative amendments to “strengthen the security of public spaces,” but in November, to its credit, announced it would drop the bill. If adopted, the bill would have required commercial entities in Yerevan to install video surveillance cameras and provide police with 24-hour access to live feeds and recordings on demand. This would have entailed arbitrary and unjustified intrusions on the right to privacy. The mere existence of video surveillance in publicly accessible areas can have a chilling effect on the rights to privacy and to freedom of assembly, association, and expression, among other rights. 
 
Human Rights Watch wrote to the authorities in August, detailing how the proposed bill would violate rights and, in October, called on the government to scrap the bill or send it for expert review. The parliament initially postponed the second reading of the bill and, on November 11, the Interior Ministry issued a statement announcing that it would not pursue the second reading. 
 
Freedom of Expression and Information 
In the first six months of 2024, the Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression (CPFE), an Armenian group, documented 14 incidents of physical violence against 23 journalists and cameramen by police and private individuals during protests, and 43 incidents of other types of pressure. 
 
Politicians and private businesses continued to bring defamation cases against journalists and media outlets, dragging them into lengthy legal battles and threatening heavy financial penalties. A local media advocacy group reported that, from January through June, media outlets faced 29 new defamation suits. In a positive development, the group documented increasing resolution of disputes through the media ethics watchdog rather than courts. 
 
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2025. New York.