STATEMENT OF FIDH PRESIDENT SOUHAYR BELHASSEN

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19:05:38 – 24/03/2010

Paris, March 24, 2010 – The preparation of the FIDH 37th Congress and
Forum organised by FIDH and its partner organisation CSI in Erevan,
Armenia on April 6-10 Forum 2010 continues. More than 250 participants
have already confirmed their presence and many other confirmations are
expected soon. FIDH, together with CSI, Helsinki Committee of Armenia,
the Collaboration for Democracy Centre and the Foundation against
Violation of Law published a briefing paper on the administration of
justice last Friday.

"I am very pleased that we published the briefing paper on the
administration of justice together with our colleagues from Armenian
NGOs " declared FIDH president Souhayr Belhassen today. "This paper
clearly reflects the spirit of our work. The point is to attract
the attention of the authorities to the serious problems that exist
today in the administration of justice and which significantly
hinder the Rule of Law in Armenia, as well as to draw the attention
of auhtorities to issues related to the situation of human rights in
Armenia. In this document, we issued essential recommendations and
sincerely hope that the Forum will be an occasion to move forward
and have these recommendations implemented. We thereby reiterate the
recommendations presented in this paper and in the position papers we
have published over the past years. In particular, we hope that the
Forum will be launched in an Armenia where there are no longer any
political prisoners. It is also of utmost importance that credible
and effective investigations on the cases of the ten people who were
killed in the March 2008 events is opened."

"Releasing political prisoners and conducting such investigations would
be a true sign of moving towards effective Rule of Law in Armenia.",
concluded Souhayr Belhassen.

Press contact : Gaël Grilhot : +33-1 43 55 90 19 Karine APPY : +33-1
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