Since early 2021, Open Society has been engaged in broad transformation that aims to strengthen its impact for human rights and democratic freedoms—including a review of its more than 20 semi-autonomous national foundations around the world, as it shifts to a new regionally-led structure.
At this time of transition, Open Society Foundations-Armenia expressed a preference to take forward its work as a fully independent foundation and will be spun off from the global network.
Thus, Open Society Foundations–Armenia discontinues its activity as a part of the Open Society Foundations organization’s network. In 2023, a fully independent, new local entity will be created, the priorities and strategy of which will be communicated at a later date. This entity will be supported by decreasing funding from Open Society through 2025.
Open Society Foundations began operating in Armenia in 1997, to date having provided over US $63 million in program assistance to Armenia, supporting a wide range of civil society groups, including investigative journalists, human rights defenders, and organizations monitoring elections and public spending.
During the 25 years of its engagement in Armenia, the Foundation’s mission was fully aimed at the protection of the rights, freedoms, and dignity of the citizen and the person. It took the form of projects and initiatives in Armenia such as the introduction of palliative care services with the Foundation’s support, the presentation of modern international models for improving mental health, equity advocacy in the education system, programs to fill the education gap for socially-vulnerable children, long-term support to Armenia’s closed and semi-closed institutions, including mental health institutions and elderly care homes, and the protection of human rights in penitentiary institutions.
In response to recent years’ challenges, and to fight against COVID-19 in Armenia, the Foundation allocated over US $1 million as urgent relief to the most vulnerable parts of society during the crisis. During and after the disastrous 44-day war in 2020, the Foundation supported the war-affected civilian population by financing humanitarian assistance projects worth over US $535,000. Parallel to these activities, the Foundation initiated the preparation and presentation to local and international instances of the Fact-Finding Report on war crimes and human rights violations by Azerbaijan. After the 2020 war, the Foundation worked intensively to present at international fora the war crimes perpetrated by Azerbaijan and the consequences of Azerbaijan’s continuing aggression against Armenia and Artsakh and to secure the international community’s appropriate reaction thereto and engagement therein.
Further details on the activities of Open Society Foundations–Armenia are available here.