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Chairperson of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor human rights defender Artur Sakunts was awarded the “Hero of the Caucasus-2016” prize of the Caucasian Knot, a media outlet focused on human rights defense.

The competition is held in three stages, separate for the North Caucasus and the South Caucasus. Candidates with an active civic stance are nominated; the nominees are engaged in the field of human rights defense.

At the first two stages human rights defender from North Ossetia Ella Kasaeva and blogger from Astrakhan Elshad Babaev held the first place.

The third stage of the competition, at which representatives from the South Caucasus (Abkhazia, Adjara, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia) were nominated, came to an end on January 10, 2018.

At the third stage Azerbaijani human rights activist Ogtay Gulaliyev representing the Public Alliance Azerbaijan without Political Prisoners held the first place. Chairperson of HCA Vanadzor A. Sakunts came second, and Tamara Mearakishvili, civic activist from South Ossetia, came third. She published proofs of the manifestation of corruption in South Ossetia.

A. Sakunts was nominated for the competition as a human rights defender, who “tried to find solutions to the public issues and struggled against the legislative violations in the country in 2016.”

The descriptive section of the competition indicates that Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office headed by A. Sakunts is engaged in the defense of the rights of common citizens, political activists and human rights defenders in Armenia.

In particular, it is mentioned that A. Sakunts acted in defense of political activists Zhirayr Sefilyan and Artur Sargsyan. Besides, he is consistently advocating the defense of the rights of those who are vulnerable in terms of human rights defense. A. Sakunts is also voicing the problems of the army.

The media outlet recalls the threats voiced in regard to A. Sakunts on the social networking website Facebook in 2017 and indicates that they were connected with the critical views expressed on the Armenian authorities.

There is a reference to the monitoring conducted by HCA Vanadzor in psychiatric hospitals, and it is mentioned that, thanks to Artur Sakunts and Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor, 53-year-old Julieta Amarikyan, a former patient of the Avan Mental Health Center in Yerevan, was able to avoid further compulsory treatment and apply to the European Court of Human Rights with the help of the human rights defenders.

The court rejected the claim for compensation for damage to reputation that the Avan Mental Health Center filed against HCA Vanadzor and J. Amarikyan.