”Veles” Human Rights NGO was officially registered in February 2014. Before that the founders and the members of the organization were engaged in human rights protection as an unregistered legal association – an initiative group. The head and the founder of the organization is Marina Poghosyan.
Main aims of the organization are to protect human rights in the Republic of Armenia, contribute to the creation of democratic processes and the rule of law, strengthen public awareness, to support individuals affected by the arbitrariness of the law. The organization, in particular is fighting against corruption and its manifestations – kleptocracy, shadow economy, fraud and usury, money laundering, nepotism and bribery, supporting the victims of crime in the judicial system, providing them with free legal advice, as well as represent their interests in court and other authorities.
Veles NGO is committed to providing support to the victims of corruption, maladministration and fraud, to raising their legitimate complaints to law enforcement agencies, as well as to vocalizing their causes in high courts and mass media.
The organization currently has more than 650 cases of affected citizens in its database in Armenia and abroad. We promote several lawsuits through provision of legal and psychological support and media coverage through our Anti-corruption blog and Anti-corruption microphone, our 7 pages on FB, Twitter, our 2 You Tube channels.
Previously, we used to publish our materials in different media outlets, but after launching our Anti-corruption microphone and own media Anti corruption blog www.acblog.am we achieved unexpected success and we no longer need to apply for support to other media.
We go on with our studies so a great amount of information is collected. Also a great number of people dwelling in various regions of Armenia and from different countries have applied and go on applying to us for support. The more our popularity grows, the more people turn to our organization for legal assistance for advice and for voicing their problems. Our work in the post-revolutionary period has become more active. More and more citizens are turning to us voicing about offenses, corruption and violation of rights, as well as the fact that sabotage and corruption deals continue in the law enforcement system. First, the organization emerged as an initiative group. Later on, to make work more efficient, it was decided to register legally in February 2014, to be able to protect the rights of citizens, to safeguard the victims from criminal threats, manipulations and deprivation of property. We started making regular press conferences, issued statements in media, organized actions and more and more citizens began to approach us for support. We have also had victories in a small amount of time: several citizens were able to defend their rights due to our legal and psychological support.
We have in total 99 544 followers. The views on our interviews and broadcasts per year varies from 9 to 10 million people. We operate a hot line 08000 -13 -13 and an innovative platform Anti corruption microphone for immediate respond on corruption cases. Our Anti corruption microphone proved to be an effective tool for people who have faced corruption in any area. Its a completely free and accessible platform for supporting people not only vocalize the injustice they have faced but also receive free legal assistance and follow up of their claims.
The organization is very active in social media and well known in Armenia and abroad due to our interviews on Anti Corruption blog and press conferences where we vocalize about the corruption deals and the kleptocrats mentioning their names. We also broadcast a weekly program “Anti corruption Week” to vocalize the corruption deals and scandals with focus on the Judicial system.
In the frame of combating corruption we conduct a large awareness raising campaign aimed at legal literacy raising as we believe that legal illiteracy can cause corruption risks. We have weekly broadcasts ” Week with a lawyer” where lawyers specialized in different fields of jurisprudence aware people about their rights and obligations, warn about frequently repeated mistakes.
We promote several lawsuits through provision of legal and psychological support and media coverage through our Anti-corruption blog ( www.acblog.am), MCmonitoring ( www.mcmonitoring.am ) and Anti-corruption microphone, our 7 pages on FB, Twitter, our 2 You Tube channels. Our main partner for seven years is NED, we have worked with CFLI for three projects, Czech Embassy and EED
Our FB pages
Veles Human Rights NGO
https://www.facebook.com/veleshumanrightsngo
Anticorruption blog
https://www.facebook.com/anticorruptionblog
National Vetting
https://www.facebook.com/nationalvetting
MCmonitoring
https://www.facebook.com/MCmonitoringYerevan
We demand the resignation of the Prosecutor General/The Prosecutor General’s Office of the RA-Alternative Platform
https://www.facebook.com/TheRAProsecutorGeneralsOfficeAlternativePlatform
Homeland is not for sale
https://www.facebook.com/homelandisnotforsale
Marina Poghosyan Rights Defender- MPRD
https://www.facebook.com/MPRD777
