THEY ARE DISSATISFIED WITH STATUS OF RA PUBLIC TV AND PRODUCTIVITY OF LEGAL AND JUDICIAL REFORMS IN EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Noyan Tapan
Oct 31, 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 31, NOYAN TAPAN. Article 301 of the RA Criminal Code
has been put into circulation in the Venice Commission, the official
record of proceedings of the opinion of the latter will be introduced
in the sitting of the commission to be held on December 14-15. An
inquiry was made by Armen Haroutiunian, the RA Human Rights Defender,
for expressing opinion with regard to the article "Public calls
directed at changing the RA Constitutional order". As the internet
site of the RA Human Rights Defender informs, the Defender was in
Strasburg at the invitation of the Directorate General of the the Human
Rights of the Council of Europe and Legal Affairs between October 17
and 19, and had a meeting with those, who are responsible for the
sphere of Human Rights of the Council of Europe. Phillipe Boillet,
the Director of the Directorate General of the the Human Rights of
the Council of Europe and Legal Affairs, in particular, expressed his
anxiousness with the fact that the responsible people of the Armenian
side have not informed about the further destiny of the experimental
suggestions concerning the amendments in the RA laws on "Ombudsman",
"Alternative Service", and "TV and Radio."

The process of the legislative amendments has also been discussed
during the meeting with Ambassador Sjogren, the co-Chairman of the
so-called AGO Group.

The latter distinguished, in particular, the problems connected with
the judicial system and the alternative TV, the necessity for improving
the legislative mechanisms for the formation of the Council of Public
TV Company, as well as for a special retraining of specialists was also
mentioned. The following mechanism was offered during the meetings with
those responsible for the sphere of the Human Rights of the European
Parliament: members of the commission among the candidates presented
by the non-governmental organizations and mass media of Armenia ought
to be appointed by the RA National Assembly and the RA President. It
was stressed that the Public TV is the main factual and legislative
alternative TV station in European countries, therefore, measures
should be taken for regulating the above-mentioned sphere in Armenia.

According to the same source, Thomas Hammerberg, the Council of
Europe Commissioner of Human Rights, and the representatives of the
European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman Treatment
expressed their anxiousness with the fact that in police headquarters
and other imprisonment places the problem concerning torture and
inhuman treatment is still on agenda in Armenia, irrespective of
the fact that the convention on Torture has been ratified by the
country. There are serious ommissions in terms of exercise of laws,
about which the increase in the number of the applications addressed
to the European Court of Human Rights speaks.

According to European responsibles, the recent reforms of the judicial
system have not had a necessary influence on the creation of an
independent judicial system, and the work conducted in the direction
of the retraining of judges and legislative amendments has not had
necessary results either.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress