International groups stand in solidarity with Armenian environmental and human rights defenders facing defamation and criminalisation
February 20, 2024
In recent months, Armenian human rights and environmental defenders and organisations have been facing defamatory attacks in local media. They are increasingly being targeted through defamation, smear campaigns, intimidation and criminalisation for their peaceful, legitimate human rights work.
Implementation of Yerevan’s Green City Action Plan
June 2, 2023
This report assesses the extent to which the actions, targets and objectives set out in Yerevan’s GCAP have been implemented and how this has affected the city’s environmental conditions.
Amulsar’s costs to human rights and threats to environmental defenders
August 4, 2022
Armenia’s government and investors have failed to prevent human rights abuses related to the Amulsar gold mine. As we await the outcome of an EBRD investigation, environmental and human rights defenders continue to face threats. New reports show how the policies that should protect human rights and environmental defenders have failed to stop a project whose costs outweigh the benefits.
Amulsar: Human Rights Violations and Environmental Negligence in the Search for Gold
June 28, 2022
This report sheds light on the human rights violations by the Armenian government and investors, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in relation to the Amulsar gold mine project.
As tensions reach a tipping point at Amulsar gold mine, what next for the EBRD?
August 20, 2020
In early August, Armenian protestors who had been blocking access continuously for the past two years to the controversial Amulsar gold mine were forcibly removed by the mine’s newly-hired security detail.
SLAPPd: the Armenian activists fighting a mining multinational’s lawsuits
June 22, 2020
Strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP) are a form of often frivolous litigation used by corporations to intimidate and punish critics and silence their right to free speech. Lydian international, the tax haven-listed mining company, has repeatedly deployed the tactic against journalists and civil society as it presses forward with the Amulsar gold mine in Armenia, whilst the EBRD has stood by silently.
Legal challenges mount for Armenia gold mine as complaint filed to EU development lender
June 15, 2020
Yerevan – The beleaguered Amulsar gold mine in Armenia broke rules attached to two loans totalling EUR 11 million it received in 2017 and 2009 from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, alleges a new complaint from 23 people living near the project and Armenian and international civil society groups including CEE Bankwatch Network.
Armenia breaks international agreement on biodiversity over gold mine funding, alleges complaint
March 30, 2020
Yerevan – The Armenian government has jeopardised three natural sites slated for protection for their unique biodiversity by moving ahead with plans for the USD 426 million Amulsar gold mine, finds a new complaint filed at the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, known as the ‘Bern Convention.’
Amulsar Update
August 23, 2019
Bankwatch has supported Armenian civil society in monitoring the investments of IFIs in Amulsar gold mine project since 2011. Following the 2018 revolution and government change, Bankwatch commissioned two expert studies by independent sociologists and biodiversity specialists. Learn more on our briefing.
How citizens battling a controversial gold mining project are testing Armenia’s new democracy
August 7, 2018
Can Armenia’s Velvet Revolution deliver change for communities struggling for their health, livelihoods and futures? Source: How citizens battling a controversial gold mining project are testing Armenia’s new democracy
