OSCE OFFICE IN YEREVAN PAYS PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO DEVELOPMENTS IN ARMENIA

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14. ARMINFO. In 2004 the Office paid particular
attention to developments in the country and maintained a constant
dialogue with the authorities and civil society throughout the year,
says the “Overview of the Office activities in 2004” distributed by
OSCE Office in YErevan, Tuesday.

The documents says that the Office’s activities in this dimension
focused on reforming the Electoral Code, assisting the improvement of
the existing voters’ registers and advocating for creation of a
centralized Voters’ Register, as well as providing support to the
Standing Committees of the National Assembly. Special attention was
attached to the advocating for legislation to promote freedom of
assembly and respect for freedom of assembly in practice. Following
the cases of administrative detention of participants of the election
related public gathering, the Office continued to lobby for the
development of a legal act governing the implementation of the right
to freedom of assembly. In May of this year a Law on Conducting Public
Gatherings, Demonstrations and Marches was passed by the National
Assembly, prior to which the OSCE/ODIHR provided expertise. However,
the law as passed does not meet all international standards on this
issue and thus the Office has been lobbying for a number of provisions
to be amended in order to improve the legislation. In addition, the
Office has on a number of occasions called upon Armenian authorities
to respect the right to assembly by allowing individuals to publicly
gather.

With regard to individuals detained with relation to public
gatherings, the Office made a number of interventions to the Armenian
authorities this year requesting that such individuals be released, in
the case of administrative detentions, or that fair trials be
conducted for those that had criminal charges applied. The Office
hopes that there will be an improvement in the situation allowing
individuals to publicly gather and expressed their opinions without
any undue restrictions placed before them.