By my
application of June 22, the Constitutional Court suspended the validity of the
Government's decision regarding the changes in the composition of the boards of
trustees of 3 state higher education institutions.
According
to the disputed decision of the Government, the number of boards of trustees of
the three higher education institutions: Yerevan State University, Armenian
State Pedagogical University after Khachatur Abovyan, and State University
after Shirak M. Nalbandyan, is set at the minimum threshold provided by law -
20 members in the following proportion: 55% or 11 people by the founder, 10% or
2 people by the authorized public administration body, 10% or 2 people from the
university faculty, 25% or 5 people from the representatives of the student
body. With these regulations that in the members appointed by the authorized
body and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia will make up 65% of the
board in the 3 mentioned higher education institutions. Thus, the votes of the
members elected by the faculty and students will not play any role in the
decision-making process.
It is
important to note that the Government initiated such changes when the Law on
Higher Education and Science, adopted by the National Assembly on March 24,
2021, is being challenged in the Constitutional Court, and in the conditions of
disputing the constitutionality of the provisions of that law in question, the
fixing of the regulations containing the most unfavorable solutions targeting
the same issue by the decision of the Government is problematic, both in terms
of content and procedure.
I
would like to record that the process of public discussion of the drafts fixing
the disputed provisions of the application has not been fully ensured. The disputed
regulations were adopted before the end of the public discussion period,
bypassing their consideration and adoption procedures.
Moreover,
neither the draft submitted for public discussion nor the disputed regulations
were submitted to the Human Rights Defender for an opinion.
I
consider this decision of the Constitutional Court, which is not final yet and
does not decide the outcome of the case, but only refers to the suspension of
the decision, important. In particular, The Supreme Court, by decision No. ՍԴԱՈ-121
of June 22, 2021, suspended the validity of the disputed provisions until the
end of the investigation. The constitutionality of the disputed provisions has
yet to be debated at the main court hearing, scheduled for July 27 of this
year.
Mr. Arman Tatoyan
Human Rights Defender of Armenia
Հայերեն
