On January 16, 2025, the Administrative Court of the Republic of Armenia ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) to provide the \u201cProtection of Rights Without Borders\u201d NGO with information regarding the use of special measures by police during the rally held at the Baghramyan\u2013Demirchyan intersection in Yerevan on June 12, 2024.\r\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Specifically, the request sought information on the number of police officers who reported the use of special measures, the number of such measures used by each officer, and the types of measures applied. The MoI refused to disclose the requested data, citing the existence of ongoing criminal proceedings.\r\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ministry appealed the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, by its decision of April 1, 2025, the Administrative Court of Appeal rejected the MIA\u2019s appeal and upheld the judgment of the Administrative Court dated January 16, 2025.\r\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Court of Appeal reaffirmed that the requested information pertains solely to the number of police officers who reported the use of physical force, special means, firearms, or military equipment, as well as the quantity and types of special measures used. The Court emphasized that such information does not constitute data obtained within the framework of criminal proceedings, nor is it confidential in nature.\r\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Furthermore, the Court noted that, notwithstanding the existence of criminal proceedings, the Ministry of Internal Affairs remains the authority in possession of the requested information and is therefore obliged to disclose it. The case concerns not the publication of preliminary investigation materials, but the provision of information held by the Ministry.\r\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Court also highlighted that police officers are required to report to their superiors on each instance of the use of special means (with limited exceptions), firearms, and military equipment. Consequently, such data is systematically collected and maintained by the Ministry.\r\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Court found the Administrative Court\u2019s conclusion to be well-founded, namely that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is obligated to ensure the right to freedom of information in accordance with Article 51 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia and the Law on Freedom of Information, and to provide the requested data within the time limits prescribed by law. Failure to do so would constitute an unacceptable violation of the applicant organization\u2019s right to access information.\r\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The organization emphasizes that the failure to disclose information on the special measures used by the RA Police on June 12, 2024, as well as the rejection of a human rights NGO\u2019s request, represents a serious setback for the right to freedom of information and undermines public accountability. In previous years (2016 and 2018), the RA Police disclosed comparable information regarding the use of special measures during peaceful assemblies, including the number and types of measures used and the number of officers who reported their use\u2014even in the context of ongoing criminal proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo credit: HETQ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On January 16, 2025, the Administrative Court of the Republic of Armenia ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) to provide the \u201cProtection of Rights Without Borders\u201d NGO with information regarding the use of special measures by police during the rally held at the Baghramyan\u2013Demirchyan intersection in Yerevan on June 12, 2024. Specifically, the request […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,245,74],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44521"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44524,"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44521\/revisions\/44524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prwb.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}