1. The external and internal challenges presented these days
require solidarity, respect for each other's rights, including opinions,
regardless of political or other subject matter viewpoints.
2. From the point of view of these principles, both public authorities
and their opponents have a key role to play in disseminating the content of
public and political discussions, and of public discourse.
3. Each of us must serve these priorities: (a) ensuring the
realization of socio-economic rights in the post-war situation, (b)
highlighting the grounds of criminal liability for the violations of the rights
of our compatriots by the Azerbaijani armed forces for their war crimes, etc.
4. Unfortunately, the discourse labeled as "new and
old", "black and white" brought to the public social-political
platform, has been introduced, and continues in our country, which is an
unacceptable agenda of dividing the society into groups and sowing
discrimination.
In addition, the use of vocabulary (often not identified the
intended addressee) by government authorities and officials, has become widely
used and is contributing to the deepening of intolerance in the country (for
example, "pizza-eater", "sell-out") is impermissible.
I mention the authorities and officials first and foremost,
because they are ultimately responsible for the content of public dialogue and
discourse in the broadest sense, both the priorities of the country, as well as
for overcoming intolerance.
5. It is of great concern that various circles of political or
public opposition, go on to ignore the norms of a system adherent to human
rights, and by such behavior, further contribute to the deepening of
intolerance and increasing of tensions.
The use of vocabulary by certain circles of the political
opposition to divide the society into groups, to develop the agenda of
insulting people, and even to encourage it, is condemnable. For example, it is
not acceptable for certain public figures to use expressions that offend a part
of the society, such as "mud", "zombies", etc.
6. The consistent and focused observations of the Human Rights
Defender's staff reveals that this unacceptable situation is exacerbated by the
fact that both the authorities and social networks supporting various
opposition circles (especially Facebook) organize the operation of fake-pages
and groups operating such fake accounts.
These pages and accounts operate in groups with specific
instructions of cursing people, insulting their dignity, making threats, and
calling for violence.
7. In general, it is absolutely unacceptable to make the
"culture" of swearing and threats a part of the public discourse.
8. It is highly reprehensible that in the case of the
government, that there are social media attacks organized or coordinated by
high-ranking officials. Moreover, according to the well-founded experts of the
Human Rights Defender's Office, some of these officials personally maintain
fake-pages and personally spread hatred, threats and insults from those pages.
9. As a result, the entire Armenian social media space has been
flooded with swearing and insults, threats against each other and hate speech,
all of which fundamentally violate the requirements and standards of human
rights.
10. Unfortunately, these vicious phenomena have seen a sharp
increase in volume over the last few years, gaining a systematic and
institutional character.
11. I hoped that during these critical days, such a development
would be ruled out and we would be united, taking into account the imperative
of all of us to be united, to respect each other's rights, and to seek
solutions for all problems based on that very principle.
12. But not only did it not happen, but now we are dealing with
a situation that grossly violates human rights (immunity from mental anguish,
emotional distress, the right to individual privacy and family life), is
detrimental to public health and to the atmosphere of solidarity in the
country; and, these days, it undermines the security of our country.
13. The socio-political system must always be based on human
rights as high universal values; be guided by the principle of respect for
those rights, including the opinion of others.
14. Therefore, we must act with respect for the fundamentals
system of human rights, correctly determine our priorities these days, and be
united for those priorities, for the rights of each of us, relying on our own
powerful potential.
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