INTRODUCTION

2021 was marked by post-war sentiments; the priorities within the country underwent a turning point and human rights priorities were pushed to the background. In this period, hate speech, speech containing mutual enmity, and intolerance have become more widespread on the Internet. On the one hand, it is due to the uncertain and tense political situation, when in the environment of huge media flow and misinformation the society begins to react emotionally to various vulnerable issues. On the other hand, it is conditioned by political manipulations used by different groups and political forces to create certain predispositions in society. In this context, by becoming a cause for political speculations the LGBT community has once again become a target and means of manipulation. Consequently, all this has had a negative impact on public sentiment, making LGBT people even more vulnerable. This atmosphere of hatred on public platforms was especially tense due to the pre-election period of the snap parliamentary elections when the political forces spared no means to discredit each other. This report summarizes the human rights violations accompanied by discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity that were documented by the Pink human rights NGO in 2021. Of course, the documented cases do not fully reflect the violations of the rights of LGBT people, as the victims do not often turn to legal protection or human rights defenders. Victims of discrimination often do not have the confidence to prove the real motives of what happened to them as, on the one hand, the process of proving cases of discrimination contains certain complications, and on the other hand, there is a pattern of courts not always using the tools provided by law to conduct a full, complete and objective investigation of cases. In such circumstances, state bodies make no effort at all to identify and document violations of the rights of LGBT people as discriminatory. The government has taken some steps in this direction in cooperation with the Council of Europe and the OSCE / ODIHR. In particular, the Council of Europe conducted a study on gaps in data collection,2 and in the frames of a project conducted by ODIHR, the law enforcement officials were trained on how to identify and report bias indicators. More detailed information about the project is summarized in Part 2 of this report. The second part of the report, in particular, presents hate speech, its concept, and essence as a basis for possible restriction of freedom of expression. The section illustrates various manifestations of hate speech on public platforms during the year, such as social networks and the media.

The process of adopting comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation was pushed out of the government’s agenda, and no progress has been seen in this regard. At the same time, the new Criminal Code was finally sent to the National Assembly for a vote, and although it is again incomplete in addressing the existing problems and gaps, it contains some provisions that allow for a broader and more effective application of the Code. The report also presents the relevant legislative changes that took place in 2021, and the analysis of the policy, shortcomings, and gaps of state bodies. Based on the analysis of the information contained in the report, recommendations have

2 Collection of data on discrimination, hate crimes, and hate speech in Armenia, Council of Europe, 2019. https://rm.coe.int/situational-analysis-armenia-eng/16809e49f1

been developed for state agencies, international organizations, the media, and Human Rights defender. In frames of Pink’s advocacy efforts, the recommendations are regularly submitted to different actors on various platforms. The package of recommendations is presented at the end of the report. The Annex section of the report discusses the course and developments of strategic litigations initiated by Pink.