SYSTEMATIC IMPUNITY AS A CHALLENGE

A public discussion on the topic “Systematic Impunity as a Challenge to Criminal Justice” was organized on July 18 of 2017.

Civil society representative participated in the meeting, who made their assessments in regard to the implementation of criminal justice in Armenia, restriction of rights, violations used against the detainees, hindrance of advocates’ professional activities, independence of the courts and judges.

Haykuhi Harutyunyan, the President of the “Protection of Right without Borders” NGO also made remarks during the discussion. During her speech, Haykuhi Harutyunyan mentioned that an information note in regard to the violations against the participants of “Sasna Tsrer” Group activities and other related events and especially violations against the advocates has been elaborated by the Protection of Right without Borders NGO.

As stated by Haykuhi Harutyunyan, the examination of the advocates during the trails, as well as the sanctioning of the defendants’ advocates was evaluated as human rights violation within the context of international standards.

“I responsibly announce that from the point of legitimacy, that the applied examination of the advocates does not correspond to the international standards and is considered a gross violation. Therefore, our legislation, particularly the Criminal Code, which sets the general provisions for the implementation procedure of that examination from the point of security, does not imply any specification in regard to the use of modern equipment, as well as conducting of such examination” – mentioned H. Harutyunyan.

According to Haykuhi Harutyunyan, the examination, except criminal procedure, which is not applicable in the mentioned situation, is established with the administrative proceeding and in this regard the USSR legislation is still applied, which does not imply any procedure.

As stated by her, international experience on the implementation of such examination in regard to concrete judicial security has been studied. It should be mentioned, that by the above mentioned study, the legal grounds for conducing of such examination in the mentioned airport is a procedure implemented in accordance with the respective recommendation of the Council of Europe and has very concrete and detailed procedure.

In all these cases, when the state exercises concrete function through its agents, but that procedure is not concretely and detailed regulated, the latter cannot be considered legitimate.

“The Organization expressed it’s readiness to support all the advocates, whose rights were violated and represent their interests in all the national and international instances” – concluded Haykuhi Harutyunyan.

The full versions of the information note “The crisis of Human Rights and Justice in Armenia during the months of January-July of 2017”.

The full versions of the information note