The public posts of officials which insult the Human Rights
Defender and openly exhibit disrespects towards the Defender in connection with
the exercise of his powers will be forwarded to the Republic of Armenia Prosecutor
General's Office.
1. Posts with such content started yesterday, in 2021. The Human
Rights Defender issued a statement on the incident between the Minister of High
Technology of the Republic of Armenia Mr. Hakob Arshakyan and journalist Mr. Paylak
Fahradyan on March 18, 2021, condemning the violence against a journalist
working professionally, especially by an official.
Moreover, the
Defender's statement yesterday did not mention the rules, which are enshrined
in international documents and rooted in years of international practice, and
which the Republic of Armenia has undertaken to guarantee.
2. Immediately after the Human Rights Defender's announcement, a
large-scale campaign in support of the Minister of High-Tech Industry started,
both on the official social media pages of the Defender's Office and in the
media, and continued throughout the day, mainly the obvious organization of
fake pages, replete with insults and hate speech against the ombudsman, as well
as openly encouraging commentary including violence against journalists.
The fact that the
comments mentioned from the fake accounts are directed is evident from the fact
that almost all of them are of the same content, of an openly manipulative
nature, with the aim of distorting the content of the Defender's statement,
while at the same time, repeating data published by websites of unknown origin.
3. Monitoring of social networks and media has shown insults,
hatred, cynicism, and openly disrespectful publications against the Human
Rights Defender in connection with the exercise of his powers, and which have
been made by various public officials. The issue is rendered more problematic
in light of the fact that instances of this nature have been recorded by
officials in the past few months (for example, an official of the Market
Supervision Inspectorate), and the ill-advised behavior has become a regular
practice.
The Human Rights
Defender considers the fact that the representatives of the party that forms
the highest executive body in Armenia and the ruling faction in the Republic's
National Assembly, including a member of the control committee, made similar
notes and on the same principle in the context of assessing these vicious
phenomena.
4. The study found that public officials (for example, the
deputy head of the Avan administrative district of Yerevan, the head of the
Solak community of the Kotayk region, the former head of the Ajapnyak
administrative district, who is currently is a member of the ruling party) as
well as a high-ranking official, and an MP of the ruling faction of the Armenian
National Assembly, Mr. Nikolay Baghdasaryan.
5. The above-mentioned persons should have a high commitment and
sensitivity for their own behavior, show restraint, promote solidarity by their
own example, and show high respect for human rights.
6. These posts and their approvals justify the use of violence
against a citizen by a public official, and more so, a high-ranking public
official, with a profoundly wrong propaganda; and, do not take into account the
specific parameters of journalistic work and the limits of an official's public
mandate, accountability and responsibility.
It is particularly troubling when a post promoting violence is
publicly endorsed by a high-ranking official.
Therefore, such actions by these individuals are absolutely
reprehensible and violate the integrity of their official status.
7. Today, one of the posts with obvious cynicism about the Human
Rights Defender, authored by a member of the above-mentioned party's
supervisory committee, was widely covered by almost all media outlets and
caused a public discussion with the very perception that it is blatantly disrespectful
and insulting to the Defender.
This has greatly contributed to the spread of misconceptions
about the functions of the Defender's Office.
8. Unfortunately, all of the above-mentioned records also
indicate that their authors have a basic ignorance of the constitutional
functions of the Human Rights Defender.
Therefore, a targeted awareness campaign on the Ombudsman's
constitutional functions will be launched in the near future.
9. We especially remind you that according to Article 193 of the
Armenian Constitution, state and local self-government bodies and officials are
obliged to support the Human Rights Defender. This obligation is also enshrined
in Article 9 of the Constitutional Law on the Human Rights Defender.
Therefore, the elimination of obstacles to the work of the Human
Rights Office as independent, based solely on apolitical principles, the
provision of objective conditions for independent work, and assistance to the
Defender is a direct obligation for all officials enshrined in the Constitution
and the Constitutional law.
10. The Human Rights Defender therefore urges all persons
holding public office to recognize their constitutional obligations with
respect to human rights and to democratic institutions, as well as the
importance and seriousness of their own official status; and, to exclude
irresponsible and short-sighted attitude towards the Human Rights Defender
institution.
11. And at the end, taking into account that the actions of the
referenced persons contain features of a crime envisaged by the Armenian Criminal
Code aimed at guaranteeing the activities of the Human Rights Defender, as well
as inciting violence and hatred, all these remarks, notations and comments are
currently summarized for dispatch to the Armenian Prosecutor General.
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