During the summer conscription of 2019, citizen K.B. applied to Peace Dialogue NGO in order be provided with legal support […]

During the reporting period, 1 serviceman was killed in a ceasefire violation. 2 servicemen were murdered by fellow soldiers. 8 servicemen committed suicide. 8 servicemen died in fatal incidents. Health problems caused death for 5 servicemen. 1 serviceman died due to violation of safety rules and 1 serviceman – due to negligent attitude towards service or official inaction. Another serviceman died from a fatal injury as a result of mine explosion.

The website and database www.safesoldiers.am has been updated with information provided to Peace Dialogue NGO by private individuals, NGOs along with information from public media. With this update, the website database now lists a total of 810 fatalities recorded in the Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh armed forces since 1994 (currently the complete database is available at the Armenian version of the website).

In a democracy, soldiers are citizens. It is that simple: They deserve to be treated as citizens, and they should not tolerate being treated otherwise, even if the military service, in training and operations, includes hardships and deprivations. An army that structurally violates the rights of its citizen-soldiers will lose legitimacy, and, in the long term, it will lose military efficacy as well.

Peace Dialogue NGO held an open discussion on the current human rights situation in the RA Armed Forces. This was […]