DISCUSSION WAS NOT OBJECTIVE

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
01 Oct 2008
Armenia

The discussion held yesterday by the Monitoring Committee of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) was mainly
devoted to the last report of Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas
Hammarberg and the process of Armenia’s implementation of Resolutions #
1609 and 1620.

"Unfortunately, I can’t say that the major part of the speeches
was sufficiently impartial, taking into consideration the fact that
attempts were made to associate the situation with the Karabakh issue,
the so-called occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by Armenia and
the ethnic cleansings. That is, I can’t say that the discussion was
objective," Head of the Armenian delegation David Haroutyunyan reported
to Radio Station "Liberty" at the end of the Committee session.

However, Mr. Haroutyunyan also said that the Armenian delegation was
able to point out to the Committee members certain positive progress
made by Armenia. "First of all, I attach much importance to the
fact that the inquest is over, because delays in inquest procedures
constitute a most serious violation of human rights and should be
put an end to as quickly as possible.

The case is still being considered by the court, and at this stage,
I attach importance to holding an independent and impartial proceeding
which will make it possible to eval uate the process at the end. The
fact that certain positive steps have already been taken does not
give way to any doubt, in my opinion.

"Unfortunately, we are still unable to achieve the adoption of
any document on setting up a fact-finding expert group, but the
negotiations with the Commissioner for Human Rights and the experts
continue intensively.

I hope that the adoption of a legal document of setting up that group
is a matter of just a couple of days," D. Haroutyunyan mentioned,
not ruling out the possibility that Thomas Hammarberg will again
visit Armenia in the nearest future.

The Monitoring Committee didn’t discuss the recent amendments to the
law "On Television and Radio".