According to a January 16 Amnesty International report, Armenia’s Jehovah's Witnesses face discrimination on religious grounds. Young men belonging to the faith group are imprisoned because their beliefs forbid military service, while other members have been subject to attack, the human rights organization reports. "The Armenian authorities are ignoring the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses are specifically targeted for attacks, including allegedly by representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church," said Laurence Broers, the researcher on Armenia for Amnesty. The latter is the dominant religious group to which around 90 percent of Armenians belong.  Armenia has to provide a civilian alternative to its mandatory military service under its Council of Europe obligations. However, the military controls Armenia’s alternative service, a fact which the human rights organization considers to be incompatible with the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religious minorities. As of September 26, 2007, there were 82 Jehovah's Witnesses imprisoned as conscientious objectors in Armenia.

In 2004, following a series of rejections, the group was granted registration as a religious organization in Armenia. There are now an estimated 9,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in the country.
This information was originally published on January 16, 2008. (www.amnesty.org)