Embassy of Sweden joined international community to honour individuals and organisations working to promote human rights, freedom of expression, diversity, democracy, transparency, legal reform and equal rights in Armenia at the Universal Rights Awards Ceremony.
On 20 February 2019 Universal Rights Award Ceremony took place at Matenadaran. Armenian officials, foreign diplomats, civil society and press representatives attended the event.
Mr. Fredriksson Charge d’ Affaires of the Swedish Embassy addressed the audience with a speech. “I want to take this occasion to acknowledge the important role of activism, when it comes to defending our human rights. We may take our rights for granted, but in fact I can’t think of any rights, for any group of people, anywhere, that has ever been won without individuals risking something, by taking action in order to defend those rights”.
Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was a guest of honour at the award ceremony.
“In Armenia the government is not the ally of the violators of human rights but it is the ally of those who are defending these rights in all the sectors,” said Prime Minister.
Universal Rights Award Ceremony has existed since 2012. This year the Embassy of Sweden, the British Embassy, the U.S. Embassy, the Delegation of the European Union to Armenia, the United Nations, the Council of Europe in Armenia, the Embassy of the Republic of France and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany participated at the Award Ceremony. This is the first initiative of the international community to highlight the contributions of Armenia’s civil and political rights activists, government officials, media and civil society representatives for promoting human rights.
