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| 15:01:39 | 28-05-2005 | Politics |

OMBUDSMAN INSTITUTE SHOULD BE CONSTITUTIONAL CATEGORY

‘Today due to adopted or not adopted laws and under law acts not only
individuals’ rights but also the rights of groups of people are violated in
Armenia’, Human Rights Defender Larisa Alaverdyan stated.

She cannot contest the correspondence of these laws and under law acts that
caused human rights violations to the Constitution. `At one time
international experts unanimously stated that nothing prevents the Ombudsman
from such possibility via legislative amendments before the conduction of a
referendum’, Larisa Alevardyan says. In her opinion, the society has not yes
come to realize the importance of institute of ombudsman, which should
become a signal for constitutional changes.

She says that the level of the protectability should be raised. The RA
Ombudsman considers that her mission is the revealing of outrageous
violations of human rights. `My mission is to make protection, recognition,
respect and encouragement of human rights a priority task for the
authorities’, she says.

She mentioned of the countries where the institute of ombudsman is system of
quite another kind. For example, in Russia the law of the human rights
defender is called a constitutional law, what proves the serious attitude of
the state towards the institute.

It is not a secret that a great number of violations take place in Armenia
presently. Larisa Alaverdyan does not deny this fact. `According to the
declaration all have equal rights, however it is not so. The rights of a
rural resident and the head of the village administration or the rights of
city-dweller and deputy or minister cannot be equal’, she says.

‘When the law was being elaborated we demonstrated our adherence to the
Paris principles. Today we should either abandon these principles or follow
them. It is an issue of honor and not a political problem’, she notes.

She holds the opinion that the human rights defender should be elected by
the parliament. Candidatures can be proposed by many people, including the
President, however it is the parliament that should take the final decision.

Diana Markosyan