The PRWB Presented a Opinion to the The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly

Within the period of November 7 to November 16 of 2018, Kleman Vulen, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assemblies and Associations was in the Republic of Armenia on an official visit, during which the latter had meetings with the relevant agencies, as well as with the civil society representatives.

The main purpose of the Special Rapporteur visit was to detect the current situation of the protection of the right to freedmom of peaceful assemblies and associations in the Republic of Armenia, the measures taken by the state to ensure their protection, as well as the current problems. By the outcomes of the visit, a report will be elaborated by the Rapporteur, which will be presented during the annual meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in June, 2019.

Araks Melkonyan, the legal expert of the Protection of Rights without Borders NGO also participated in the meeting with Mr. Vule. Along the presented problems during the meeting, an opinion on the problems and violations of the rights to freedom of assemblies and associations during the Organization’s activities  elaborated by the Protection of Rights without Borders NGO was presented to the Special Rapporteur. The presented opinion incuded the problems of the protection of the right to freedom of assemblies and associations during the «Electric Yerevan» movement of June, 2015, as well as the human rights violations by the RA law enforcement bodies during the events that happened in the Republic of Armenia within the period of April 16-23 of 2018. Particularly, the facts regarding the violations of the peaceful assembly participants rights to freedom of assemblies and illegal criminal persecutions, physical violation and other ill treatment behaviours, application of special measures, including the problems of the violations of the juvenilles rights to freedom of assemblies were presented.

The problems and observations regarding the lack of efficient measures for the protection of freedom of peacefull assemblies were presented. The problems regarding the right to freedom of assemblies were also raised, particularly, the Organization expressed its concerns on the RA Draft Law on «The Non-Governmental Organizations».

Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Assembly and Association about the Exercise of the Right of Freedom to Peaceful Assembly in Armenia