Human rights, Slides

The Annual 2017 Conference on “Human Dimension Implementation” Warsaw

September 23, 2017

The Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) was organized in Warsaw during September 11-12 of 2017, within the scope of which 57 OSCE participating States presented the situation of implementation of the commitments on human rights assigned to them.

Araks Melkonyan, the legal expert of the “Protection of Rights without Borders” NGO presented observations on the prevention of torture and its examination, as well on the independence of the judiciary during the Conference. In regard to the prevention of the torture, she particularly mentioned, that “despite the concept of torture has been amended in the RA Criminal Code that does not include other types of ill-treatment and in practice, the manifestations of torture and other inhumane treatment are not properly qualified and are not subjected to effective investigation. The tortures are qualified as exercise of official duties and according to the domestic legislation it does not ensure the protection of victims, including restoration and compensation. According to the statistical data by the state, after the amendments made in the legislation, no criminal cases under the article “torture” has been sent to court examination.

It is also problematic, that the police activities during the events in Armenia dated during July 17-30 of 2017 have not been properly taken into consideration, despite the sufficient evidence regarding the facts that the policemen and a number of people in civilian clothes subjected the protest participants and journalists covering the events to violence.

After one year from the mentioned event, the preliminary investigation is not over and none of the police employees is involved as a suspect or accused despite the numerous facts.

The RA President Serj Sargsyan expressed his gratitude to the RA policemen for their high-level of professionalism, called the journalists to forget the those events and the high-ranking police officials, including the head of the Police and the head of the Police Troops were awarded with new ranks and awards by the President.

Such conduct of the country’s President facts about the tolerant atmosphere towards and moreover the support to the police violence, therefore independent investigation on the July cases have not been conducted by the law enforcement bodies and the delays in investigation prove that.

The sponsorship of the police employees and such an assessment on the violence lead to the repetition of the similar cases. For example, 5 members of Sasna Tsrer Armed Group were subjected by the Police on June 28 of 2017 right in the court building, which was unprecedented itself. The criminal case in this regard was also instituted on the grounds of the exercise of the official duties, but none of the policemen involved in the events were accused: moreover, the same group continuous to guide the accused to the court and apply the same threats against them, as stated by the advocates of the latter.

Araks Melkonyan urged the RA authorities to conduct an effective, independent and comprehensive investigation and drew the attention of the international human rights organizations to the procedure and outcomes of the conducted investigation.

Detention as a preventive measure was presented as a problem of judicial independence in the Republic of Armenia. A. Melkonyan particularly mentioned, that “according to statistics, the 95% of the motions made on the application of detention as a preventive measure presented by the body conducting the proceeding during the first six months of 2017 was satisfied: particularly 1155 motions out of 1215 were ratified, and 718 motions out of 733 presented to prolong the detention were satisfied.

The 12 month detention of Andreas Ghukasyan, member of the “New Armenia” opposition movement is also problematic. Andreas Ghukasyan was the only person who was subjected to criminal persecution: he is still under detention. The motions presented to prolong the deadlines on the application of detention as a preventive measure against Andreas Ghukasyan have been examined during more than 16 closed court sessions. Meanwhile, the detention applied against other persons, including Armen Martirosyan, David Sanasaryan, Hovsep Khurshudyan, subjected to criminal persecution together with Andreas Ghukasyan on the same grounds of organizing of or participating in the mass disorders, was pledged and the latter were released. The influence and pressure of the international organizations played a role.

The case of Ghukasyan is also specific in term, that during the examination of the complaint presented by the advocate of Andreas Ghukasyan, the judge asked the latter whether Andreas Ghukasyan would continue his oppositional activities if release. Getting the positive and distinct answer by Andreas Ghukasyan, the RA Court of Appeals made a decision to continue the detention applied against A. Ghukasyan.

Such facts give a ground to insist, that the criminal persecution, as well as the continuous detention applied against Andreas Ghukasyan follow political reasons”.

For more information on the problems raised by the PRWB, which are also included in the reports on “Human Right Violations in Armenia during the Period of July 17-39” and “The Human Rights and Justice Crisis in Armenia during the months of January-July”, follow the links above.