SPEAKER OF ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT, EXPERTS OF VENICE COMMISSION AND OSCE/ODIHR DISCUSS AMENDMENTS TO LAW ‘ON RALLIES, DEMONSTRATION AND PROCESSIONS’

arminfo
2008-04-15 18:16:00

ArmInfo. Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Tigran Torosyan met
experts of the Council of Europe Venice Commission Finola Flanagan
and Simona Granata-Menghini, as well as OSCE/ODIHR experts Denis
Petit and Neil Jarman.

The Armenian parliamentary press-service told ArmInfo that the meeting
covered the amendments to the law "On rallies, demonstrations and
processions" adopted by the parliament on March 17. The meeting was
also attended by Armenian Justice Minister Gevorg Danielyan, Assistant
to the Armenian President Gevorg Mheryan, Special Representative of
the Council of Europe Secretary General to Armenia Bojana Urumova
and other officials.

Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly Tigran Torosyan assured
them that Armenia respects the CoE admission commitments.

Torosyan noted that the law adopted on April 28, 2004, was normally
perceived by the society. "However, after the presidential election
one of the presidential candidates held unsanctioned rallies for 9
days running, this was a rough violation of the law that was followed
by the March 1 mass disorders. One should be aware of the real events
to understand why and in what conditions the law was amended and what
should be changed today", he stressed. Torosyan also noted that after
the amendments had been adopted, the law was submitted for expert
examination of the Venice Commission. On the basis of the received
responses, 4 items of the law should be discussed.

In particular, the first item is related to notification, according to
which in case of prohibition, the police and the National Security
Service are to give a conclusion on the obstacles hindering the
conduct of rallies. Another issue concerns spontaneous rallies. 10-50
people may start an alleged spontaneous rally which will turn into
a multi-thousand rally. In this connection, Torosyan suggested that
the right formulation should be found as a result of hearings or the
introduced amendments should be left unchanged.

For her part, Finola Flanagan pointed out that Torosyan’s
clarifications will help find the right solutions. After the
discussions, the law will again be sent to the CoE Venice Commission
and the OSCE/ODIHR, and after responses are received the draft law
will again be discussed at the National Assembly.