Human rights attorney Siranush Sahakyan, the president of Yerevan’s International Comparative Law Center, has been awarded by the Armenian National Committee of America Eastern Region (ANCA-ER) with its annual Freedom Award. As ANCA-ER reported, Freedom Award is the highest honor the region bestows upon individuals who exhibit extraordinary courage and devotion to freedom and justice. It is presented annually at the regional gala to individuals who have made extraordinary contributions toward issues that concern Armenian Americans, reports Panorama.
The source reminds that Sahakyan is the human rights attorney filing cases with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on behalf of the Armenian prisoners of war. Sahakyan joined a long list of notable recipients and is deserving of the award on so many levels, including for her most recent work in helping give a voice to the voiceless POWs as a result of the most recent Azerbaijani and Turkish attacks on Artsakh, as well as her work to bring justice to the 2004 murder of Gurgen Margayan at the hands of Ramil Safarov.
Sahakyan not only serves as the president of the ICLaw, but is also the co-founder of Path of Law NGO and an adjunct lecturer at the American University of Armenia where she also serves as the coordinator of the master’s program in human rights and social justice. Through her work with the ICLaw, she is currently working in partnership with the Armenian Legal Center for Justice and Human Rights on gathering evidence, witness testimony, preparing legal dossiers to file with the ECHR, as well as other international bodies responsible for such cases, on behalf of the families of prisoners of war and those identified as missing in action.
