ARMENIAN NGOs HOLD MONITORING OF FULFILMENT OF OBLIGATIONS ASSUMED BY ARMENIA TOWARDS CE

YEREVAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The May 18 seminar organized by the
Cooperation in the Name of Fair Society initiative was dedicated to
the discussion of the process of fulfilment of obligations assumed by
Armenia towards the CE. It was reported at the seminar that a number
of NGOs – Democracy, Cooperation in the Name of Democracy, Helsinki
Committee of Armenia and others, held monitoring of fulfilment
of obligations assumed by Armenia towards the CE. The work was
coordinated by the Yerevan Press Club with the financial assistance
of the Institute of Open Society. According to Vardan Poghosian,
Chairman of the Democracy organization, the fulfilment of these
obligations and, first of all, constitutional amendments, is the
indicator of the way Armenia will go by. He mentioned that in spite
of some improvement in the process of human rights and main freedoms,
human rights during a legal procedure weren’t taken into account in
the package of constitutional amendments. He mentioned appointment
and not election of Yerevan Mayor as a significant shortcoming in the
draft of constitutional amendments. The speech of Hrayr Tovmasian,
another representative of the same organization, was dedicated to
issues of reformation of the Electoral Code and judicial system. He
pointed to the necessity of formation of electoral commissions on the
balanced basis: “As long as there isn’t equal number of commission
members from the power and opposition this will be a serious obstacle
for elections.” According to Tovmasian, three factors are necessary
for holding fair elections: admissible Electoral Code, political
will of country’s leadership and society’s political culture. As
for the judicial sphere, in G.Tovmasian’s estimation, President’s
key role both in formation of the Council of Justice and in the
issue of appointment of judges is quite obvious. “In essence, the
judicial power became the continuation of the executive power.” It
was mentioned at the seminar that the final report on monitoring
results will be submitted in September.