The authorities continued to work on the new Criminal Code, which was adopted by the Parliament of the Republic of Armenia on 5 May 2021 and will enter into force in July 2022. The new Criminal Code includes amended hate crime provisions, namely extended list of protected characteristics under the general penalty enhancement provision (Aggravating circumstances for liability and punishment under the new Article 71), as well as extended lists of protected characteristics under the specific penalty enhancement provisions under a number of substantive offences.
In 2020, negotiations continued regarding the implementation of ODIHR's TAHCLE and PAHCT training programmes in Armenia. The efforts culminated in 2021 by signing two memoranda of understanding, on TAHCLE (concluded between Police of the Republic of Armenia and ODIHR) and PAHCT (concluded between the Academy of Justice, Office of the Prosecutor General, and the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia), respectively.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Justice collaborated with the Council of Europe in the framework of Council of Europe's Project "Strengthening the access to justice through non-judicial redress mechanisms for victims of discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in Eastern Partnership countries". The objective of the project is, among others, to assist relevant national institutions to develop their procedures and tools on collecting disaggregated data collection on discrimination, hate crime and hate speech, in order to better prevent these phenomena and improve recording and reporting. Two meetings with the participation of the key stakeholders, including civil society organizations, were held in 2019 and 2020 and a report entitled "Armenia's hate crime, hate speech and discrimination data collection system: Recommendations for improvement and for adopting a joint approach and national situational analysis", accessible here, was produced in September 2020.
The category "other" consists of offences of "Public calls for violence, public justification or propaganda of violence" (Article 226 point 2 of the Criminal Code) which may include cases of hate speech falling outside of the OSCE definition of hate crime.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) published relevant recommendations in its "Concluding observations on the third periodic report of Armenia".
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly published relevant recommendations in its "Resolution 2391: Humanitarian consequences of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan / Nagorno-Karabakh conflict".
ODIHR recognizes Armenia's efforts to build the capacities of police, investigators and prosecutors in responding to hate crimes, namely through ODIHR's TAHCLE and PAHCT training programmes, and for adopting a more progressive hate crime legislation. However, based on the available information, it observes that the law enforcement agencies of Armenia do not record the bias motivations behind hate crimes. In addition, ODIHR observes that Armenia would benefit from strengthening, collaboration with, and facilitating the work of civil society, on hate crimes, including on victim support.
ODIHR recalls that in the Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, participating States have committed to promptly investigate hate crimes and ensure that the motives of those convicted of hate crimes are acknowledged. To that end, the law enforcement agencies must, first of all, record the bias motivation of hate crimes. In the Ministerial Council Decisions 9/09 and 13/06, participating States have also committed to a proactive and inclusive approach towards a civil society which plays a key role in addressing hate crimes comprehensively, namely in reaching out to victims of hate crime and the whole victimized communities and providing assistance to hate crime victims. ODIHR stands ready to support Armenia in meeting the relevant commitments through its comprehensive resources and tailored assistance in the area of hate crime recording and data collection, as well as further resources and assistance addressing effective cooperation between state authorities and civil society on hate crime.