Karen Andreasyan

Karen Andreasyan (Armenian: Կարեն Անդրեասյան; born September 10, 1977) is a former human rights defender ombudsman of Armenia (2011–2016), the associate professor of law at Yerevan State University and member of Armenian Chamber of Advocates.

1994-2002 Karen Andreasyan studied in various institutions including the Law Faculty of Yerevan State University, obtaining a PhD in law from the same faculty, as well as at University of California, Berkeley, US; University of Oxford in UK; Canadian Center for Human Rights; European Journalism Center, Maastricht, the Netherlands.

1997-2000 He worked in certain state bodies of the Republic of Armenia, including Yerevan Municipality, Ministry of Defense of Armenia, First Instance Court, and taught human rights and administrative law at Secondary School N120 and Armenian Police Academy.

2001-2007 He taught constitutional law, human rights and media law, at Law Faculty of Yerevan State University.

2001-2003 He worked in a number of non-governmental organizations, including the Armenian Bar Association Center for pro bono legal services /as a director/, “Civil Education Program” international organization /as a project coordinator/, “Internews” NGO /as a lawyer/. During the specified period he taught human rights in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and in seminars for journalists held in Nagorno-Karabakh.

In 2003 he was a senior research fellow at the Center for Socio-Legal Studies at University of Oxford in UK.

2003-2004 He worked in a number of international organizations as an international expert and advisor, including in “Article 19” in Great Britain, “Open Society Justice Initiative” in Hungary, “Access to Information” in Bulgaria.

2005-2008 Karen Andreasyn worked at American Bar Association as a lawyer, then as a senior staff attorney and finally as a deputy director.

2006-2007 He served as an advisor to the president of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia.

2008-2011 He founded and worked as a managing partner of “DEFENCE” Law Firm, which later merged with another company, was renamed “AM” Law Firm and currently is one of the leading firms in Armenia, where he continues to be a partner.

2007-2010 He realized a number of television and civic projects. In cooperation with European Journalism Center, he organized a competition on Information Law and Investigative Journalism for law and journalism students. He was a TV host at two Armenian leading broadcasters: he conducted the program "State Issues" at "Yerkir Media" TV Company and the program "In Reality" at Armenia TV Company.

In 2011 Karen Andreasyan was elected by the Parliament of Armenia as Human Rights Defender, an independent official, established by the Constition of Armenia, to follow the respect for human rights and freedoms by state and local self-government bodies and officials, and to facilitate the restoration of violated rights and freedoms and the improvement of the all kinds of legal acts related to human rights and freedoms.

Karen Andreasyan created a Reality TV Show format, the “Journalistic Battles”, where young journalists compete at a televised show, to investigate and report on most common corrupt practices in the country. This format created by him in Armenia was successfully replicated also in Kenya and Bolivia by the European Journalism Centre. 

Karen Andreasyan is author of about twenty published scientific articles, educational materials and other works.”