Chairwoman Amalia Kostanyan and Project Director Sona Ayvazyan of Transparency International Anti-corruption Center (TIAC) participated in debriefing seminar on May 13 and 14, 2009, to review the findings and experience of monitoring of freedom of assembly and to plan future monitoring. The seminar was held within the framework of capacity building for human rights defenders on monitoring of freedom of assembly training. The training was designed to enable human rights defenders to monitor how Armenia's freedom of assembly legislation and international standards in that field were implemented in practice.

Following the training course, human rights defenders monitored assemblies throughout the country for six months and compiled their observations in a report.

The seminar was organized by the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Office in Yerevan, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights together with the Helsinki Committee of Armenia. The seminar participants reviewed monitoring findings, including administration of notifications, restrictions imposed, policing of assemblies, punishments / convictions of participants, local variations in dealing with assemblies and improvements in managing assemblies.

The participants in the seminar also shared their experiences and problems, confronting difficult situations while monitoring: engaging with the police, detention by police, seizure of documents or materials and relation to other parties. They also reviewed value of and gaps in training, future of monitoring in Armenia, plans to continue and needs of monitoring organization.