ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT PASSED DRAFT LAW ‘ON ALTERATIONS AND AMENDMENTS TO LAW ‘ON RALLIES, DEMONSTRATIONS AND PROCESSIONS"
arminfo
2008-03-18 11:24:00
ArmInfo. Late at night March 17, at the extra session, RA Parliament
passed the second and final reading of the draft law "On Alterations
and Amendments to Law "On Rallies, Demonstrations and processions""
with 90 votes "for" and 6 "against".
One of the authors of the amendments, MP Rafik Petrossyan says
that the March 1 events in Yerevan have become a bitter lesson for
everybody. 8 people were killed and lots of people wounded on that
day, the state sustained big damage, the political situation in the
country was destabilized. The events have shown that the existing
law needs revision. It is necessary to revise some points of the law
so as to exclude the possibility of anti-constitutional actions and
to guarantee the safety of people in the future. The amendments are
based on the principles of human rights and freedoms, particularly,
the authors refer to articles 11 and 16 of European Convention n
Human Rights and considered the experience of such countries as Italy,
Germany, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Finland, Romania, Moldova.
Particularly, the authors are planning to amend articles 9, 10,
12 and 14 of the law. Thus, according to the amendment to Article
9 the authorities can restrict organization and holding of rallies,
demonstrations and processions if in case of reliable information these
activities may threaten the state security, cause violation of public
order, and violation of the constitutional rights of citizens. It
is extremely important that the body restricting the organization of
the activities should possess absolutely reliable information. This
information must be told to the Police and the National Security
Service. At the same time, the organizers of the activities may dispute
the decision on legal waivers. In case of disorders, occurred as a
result of mass events, the authorities are entitled to refuse the
organizers of mass events to hold new rallies, demonstrations and
processions until completion of the criminal case. Moreover, a new
provision has been introduced in the document, according to which
it is banned to hold mass events, if all the other measures gave no
result. Mass events may be held only with written permission of the
authorized body. The terms of application submission for holding of
rallies, demonstrations and processions have been also revised. The
organizer of mass events undertakes to notify the authorized bodies
about it not three days before, as it has been fixed in the current
law, but five days before their holding.