YEREVAN, APRIL 29, NOYAN TAPAN. Four-day courses to improve the professional skills of those implementing control of detention places started in Tsakhkadzor on April 26. Organized on the initiative of the OSCE Yerevan Office and the OSCE Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Office (DIHRO), these courses are being run for members of the public control groups adjunct to the RA Police and the RA Ministry of Justice. They will learn how to prepare reports on rights of prisoners and their keeping conditions in prisons. In the words of OSCE Yerevan Office Head Amb Vladimir Pryakhin, "the improvement of conditions at detention places and protection of prisoners' rights is a priority of the OSCE." He welcomed the creation of public control groups on the initiative of the Armenian authorities and civil society, which allowed to develop an efficient mechanism to identify the existing problems and improve the situation. Head of the DIHRO rule of the law program Sintia Alcon in her turn noted that the public control mechanisms are the most important guarantees of human rights protection at detention places. The 24 course participants will learn the peculiarities of control of cells in prisons and police departments and discuss the main problems that give an occasion for concern. The program also envisages intensive group training, visits to detention places and preparation of reports.

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