THE FIRST OMBUDSMAN MADE A NON-OFFICIAL REPORT

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[08:55 pm] 26 April, 2006

Human rights are violated systematically in Armenia and the defense of
human rights is not perceived in itself especially by the RA highest
authorities. This was the announcements of the first Ombudsman of
Armenia, Larissa Alaverdyan. She said that by the decree of Robert
Kocharyan since January 4 the country did not have an Ombudsman for 40
days, while according to the Constitution each citizen has the right
to protect his rights. “My work for the last two years showed that
everyone accepts and respects human rights but when it comes to acting,
the authorities mainly treat it as something declared and not real.”

Larissa Alaverdyan stressed that human rights are usually violated in
the higher authorities. She noted that very often people who want to
protect their rights are simply beaten up. Noting that human rights
are violated in all the countries, Mrs. Alaverdyan said that in some
countries those violating human rights are punished and in others
they are not.

She informed that they have cooperated with several state structures
and the cooperation has had positive results in the lower and middle
rings of the authorities more often than in the higher and highest
ones.

According to Mrs. Alaverdyan, only 25% of all the Armenians live
in Armenia, and the rest live in other countries as national
minorities. So Armenia must protect the rights of the national
minorities. And as there are many refugees in Armenia, We must
protect the rights of refugees, families of soldiers and those who
were disabled after the war.

According to Mrs. Alaverdyan the authorities which cannot protect
the rights of theses weak groups are weak themselves. She brought
many examples when the rights of these very groups are violated by the
authorities. She reminded the cases when refuges were deprived of their
houses or the lands of perished soldiers were given to high officials.

By the way, Larissa Alaverdyan brought another fact: Minister of
Transport and Communication Andranik Manoukyan took away the mill of
an LTD. The court decided to return the property to its owner but
the court workers and the Ombudsman’s office were unable to carry
out the court decision.

By the way, Mrs. Alaverdyan noted that in this case when there is no
political will no protect human rights the will of the society will
get stronger.