The Human Rights Defender (ombudsperson) of Armenia, Anahit Manasyan, on Thursday reflected on Wednesday’s incident when numerous teachers and schoolchildren had participated in the ruling Civil Contract party’s election campaign in Aragatsotn Province during class hours, which was also reported by observation missions.

“Yesterday, we conducted monitoring ourselves and had several inquiries regarding this issue. Also, yesterday I issued a public statement, reflecting on the fact that it is true, of course, that children’s participation in various processes of public importance is important, they should participate in decision-making processes. But if it’s about children’s right to education, it is obvious that this should be a priority, and the teaching process should not be disrupted in any way due to various circumstances, including political processes. This was an important statement, also with a cautioning purpose, because we may hear about one case that will receive public resonance, while another will not,” said Manasyan.

She added that the framework of the mandate as the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, is, first of all, to guarantee the right to education. “We do not have powers related to the abuse of administrative resources, nor to other similar processes; there are other authorized bodies in terms of these issues. Our task is first of all to guarantee the right to education, and for this we have specifically recorded that the educational process should not be disrupted in any way, regardless of political processes. We have received a report about the voluntary participation in the assembly, due to which the educational process was disrupted, therefore we are investigating this process,” said the Human Rights Defender of Armenia.

As reported earlier, teachers and students from several schools in Armenia’s Aragatsotn Province on Wednesday were brought by buses to the election campaign of the ruling Civil Contract party in Aparan city—moreover, during class hours. One of these teachers had told Armenian News-NEWS.am that the classes were shortened for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Source: https://news.am/en/news/1035319