Over the last several years, the Open Society Foundations–Armenia has struggled to reverse the country’s dramatic turn away from democracy and human rights—organizing legal representation for victims of the violence and helping to empower the country’s NGO community through support for documentation of rights violations, court monitoring, and legal challenges to electoral fraud.
The foundation also facilitates more long-term reform through innovative and flexible initiatives such as implementing country-wide needle exchange programs to help prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS and providing computers and Internet access in rural areas. The foundation works closely with the OSIAF-founded Partnership for Open Society—a coalition of 60 civil society organizations—to ensure open debate and access to information on a wide array of social and political issues in Armenia, from religious tolerance and emigration to budgetary transparency.