In Aghveran, Chairwoman Amalia Kostanyan and Executive Director Sona Ayvazyan of Transparency International Anti-corruption Center (TIAC) participated in four-day training course on capacity building for human rights defenders on monitoring of freedom of assembly between September 15 and 18, 2008. The training course 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 training was designed to enable human rights defenders to monitor how Armenia's freedom of assembly legislation and international standards in this field were being implemented in practice. It included the policing of events, adherence to agreements on conditions for assemblies, the interaction between participants in a demonstration and counter-demonstrators and the conduct of participants in a demonstration passing sensitive locations.

Following the training course, human rights defenders would monitor assemblies throughout the country for six months. Their observations would be compiled in a report and submitted to the authorities.