ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT STARTS HEARINGS ON NA’S DRAFT STATEMENT ON IMPLEMENTATION OF PACE RESOLUTION 1609
arminfo
2008-06-16 17:38:00
ArmInfo. The Armenian parliament started hearings on the National
Assembly’s draft statement on implementation of PACE Resolution 1609
by Armenia, Monday.
MP Hranush Hakobyan, one of the statement’s authors, said that
the Armenian public has been discussing PACE Resolution 1609 for
two months. Different assessments are given to the Resolution at
different levels, and parallels with other documents are drawn. In
this connection, the representatives of the ruling coalition in
parliament came out with an initiative to prepare a draft statement on
implementation of the Resolution 1609 by the republic. In particular,
the statement covers the events during both pre-election and
post-election periods.
Thus, the PACE Resolution notes that the presidential election in
Armenia was held in line with international standards. Furthermore,
the Resolution calls on all Armenian political forces to obey the
Constitutional Court’s decision. The document also points out the
mistakes and shortcomings registered during the election, as well
as proposals to eliminate them. For instance, PACE recommends the
Armenian authorities to reform the Election Code. In connection with
this speaker of the Armenian parliament formed the working group
on resolving of the given problem. The group is headed by headed by
hairman of the permanent parliamentary commission on the state and
legal issues David Harutyunyan. Experts of different political forces ,
public organizations and mass media were involved in the group. PACE
Resolution also suggests to ensure independence and transparency
in Armenian Public TV activity, which should implement the idea of
pluralism of views.
Moreover, the resolution suggests to ensure independence of the
commission on television and radio. The main problem is that members
of the commission should be selected on the basis of competition. In
this context suggestion of the Heritage party was accepted and the
detailed parliamentary hearing were held on the draft laws which
regulate the given sphere. Practically all the parliamentary forces,
public organizations and mass media took part in the hearing. The
package of the draft laws was drawn out and directed to expertise of
the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. Within the frames of
Armenia’s commitments extraordinary report of Armenian Ombudsman on
the 1-2 March events was presented. The draft law "On regulations of
the National Assembly" was adopted in the first reading. This draft
law gives wider authorities to the Armenian opposition. Alteration
and amendments were made to the "Law on the order of holding rallies,
demonstrations and processions", which meets all the international
standards at present.
Armenian president charged to set up the working group, headed
by justice minister Gevorg Danielyan, on drawing out legislative
and normative acts directed to ensuring independence of the court
system. As for the arrested people for participation in the 1-2
March events, a total of 115 people were detained and arrested. At
present 72 people out of them were released, 14 recognized they are
guilty and 3 were justified. Thus at present criminal persecution
continues only regarding 24 people. Certain work was implemented for
the dialogue between the opposition and authorities. It is supposed
to start the dialogue within the frames of Public Council as well
as in the National Assembly. Temporary parliamentary commission to
investigate the 1-2 March events is being formed at present. And the
post of deputy chairman of the commission maybe given to representative
of the opposition.