OMBUDSMAN SEES CONTINUED RESTRICTION OF FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY IN ARMENIA

Asbarez
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-Armenia’s human rights defender has criticized the
authorities for failing to show full commitment to the principles
of freedom of assembly. In an ad hoc report unveiled in Yerevan
on Tuesday, Ombudsman Armen Harutiunian also blamed certain vague
provisions in the current legislation for the situation.

The report reviews the situation with the freedom of assembly in
Armenia since the 2008 presidential election till today. It concludes
that the principles of “state obligation to protect peaceful rallies,
exclusion of discrimination and other principles” have been violated.

“The conduct of public authorities in many cases gives reasons to
assume that they fail to fully appreciate the importance of freedom
of assembly,” Harutiunian said during the presentation of the report.

According to the data published in the report, the Yerevan authorities
rejected more than 80 requests for holding public rallies in the city
in 2008.

“There were not that many requests for public rallies in 2009 and
particularly so far this year and the number of rejections isn’t that
large correspondingly, because it is not a pre-election period now.

The same problems, however, may recur during pre-election periods,
as the legislation remains the same,” he said.

The Armenian parliament introduced drastic changes in the freedom
of assembly legislation shortly after nonstop rallies staged by the
opposition after the disputed 2008 presidential election led to the
country’s worst political crisis. The changes severely restricted the
rights to hold rallies and demonstrations and gave local authorities
sweeping powers to reject requests for holding protest events based on
vague conclusions of law-enforcement agencies. The Armenian lawmakers
later removed some of the restrictions under pressure from the Council
of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, but did not fully revert to the
version of the law that existed before March 2008.

The ombudsman’s latest report does not refer to cases of violence,
police detentions and criminal prosecution applied against
oppositionists participating in marches of protest in 2009. It
only says that citizens’ right to hold marches appeared to be ‘less
protected’ than the right to stage rallies.

Harutiunian said he planned to come up with a new draft law to try
to fill in the gaps in the existing legislation.

The ombudsman acknowledged the existence of violations in the practice
of applying laws, but would not be drawn into a discussion of the
‘democratic credentials’ of the current government.

“An ombudsman is not a politician and this is not a political report,”
Harutiunian underscored.

From: A. Papazian