URGENT APPEAL

Lragir.am
23/01/10

To the members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

We are appealing to you in regards to recent changes in the
composition of the Armenian delegation to the PACE imposed by the
chairman of the Armenian Parliament. Those changes are in clear and
blatant violation of the principles set out in Rule 6.2 of the PACE
Rules of Procedure, according to which national parliamentary
delegations must be composed of membership that ensures a fair
representation of the political parties or groups represented in their
respective parliaments.

The ultimate aim of this hypocritically formulated reshuffle is to
deprive the representative of the only real opposition party
represented in the Armenian parliament, the unequivocally opposition
`Heritage’ party, which has consistently condemning the ongoing
violations by the Armenian authorities of basic human rights and
fundamental freedoms and further weakening of the principles of
democracy and the rule of law in the Republic of Armenia, of the right
to voice in the PACE the genuine concerns of the Armenian people, to
deprive `Heritage’ party of the possibility to reveal to you the truth
about the real situation in Armenia. The basic cause of this
reshuffle is the fact that the active participation of the
representative of `Heritage’ party in the sessions of the PACE, in the
sittings of the Bureau of the Group of the European People’s Party
and, particularly, in the meetings of the Monitoring Committee of the
Assembly, was becoming dangerous for Armenian authorities.

The possible ratification by the Assembly of the credentials of the
recently reconstituted Armenian delegation will only contribute to the
further deterioration of the internal human rights situation in
Armenia, and will only encourage and deepen the sense of impunity
among the Armenian authorities. The first signs of this are already
evident, as one of the more blatant cases of falsified elections,
marred by unprovoked violence against journalists, observers and
proxies, occurred on January 10, and has been only followed by the
unjust conviction of prominent independent journalist and opposition
political figure Nikol Pashinyan on January 19, 2010.

Sixty years ago, the founding states endowed the Council of Europe
with the task of achieving a greater unity between its members for the
purpose of safeguarding and realising the ideals and principles of
personal and political freedoms and the rule of law, which are our
common heritage and on which true democracy is founded.

Today we call upon you to challenge the still unratified credentials
of the parliamentary delegation of Armenia and to send a clear message
to the Armenian authorities that any such decision to unfairly deny
the sole opposition party a voice and fair representation within the
official delegation to PACE stands in blatant contradiction of each of
our common values and principles, including the principle of
separation of powers. Thus, we call on PACE to affirm that the
patience of the Council of Europe is limited regarding continued
violations by the Armenian authorities and that any further delay in
compliance with their commitments and obligations is not acceptable
any more and is fraught with severe consequences.

Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office
Transparency International Anti-corruption Center NGO
Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Armenian Committee NGO
Zartonk 89
Journalists for human rights
‘Asparez’ Journalists’ Club
Menk plus
‘Huys’ NGO
Lawyers for human rights
National citizens’ initiative
Ecoera NGO