A very worrying situation
has been created in connection with the DataLex electronic information system.
Data has not been published on the system over an extended period of
time.
The failure to publish
data in the DataLex system is particularly concerning in the context of the
continuing unacceptable practice of the manual distribution of court cases,
which is causing human rights violations.
The issue is the fact
that DataLex is important not only in the sense that it makes data about court
proceedings accessible to the public but also from the viewpoint that it is an
important method for public oversight of courts
In particular, the alarming-calls
in relation to DataLex and the manual distribution of cases should be viewed in
the same context. The lack of information in DataLex denies the Human Rights
Defender, Lawyers, the participants of the court proceedings, everyone, the
opportunity to monitor within their legal capacities, if judges are selected to
judicial panels, or whether certain judges are assigned cases through
violations, or what are the dangerous consequences of the process to
people.
The failure to publish
data on DataLex is causing additional hassle, and violations of human rights.
The study of DataLex at
the Office of the Human Rights Defender has demonstrated that there are no data
about administrative cases since December 10, 2021, no data on criminal cases
since December 23, and no data on civil, bankruptcy, and payment order since
December 24.
Lawyers, and citizens who
are participants in court proceedings have applied to the Human Rights Defender
of Armenia through alarming-calls that they cannot find data about their cases
on DataLex.
In particular,
information on which cases have been assigned to which judges, what are the
claims made, what interim act has the court made (for example, whether the
court accepted the case, whether it returned it, or whether a security measure
was applied or not), etc, is not accessible.
The alarming-calls
addressed to the Human Rights Defender are related to the fact that people are
obliged to call judges and staff of the courts since they cannot find data
about their court cases on the electronic system. But they face hassles as a
result of the workload of the courts; they receive the required answers after
facing difficulties, or their telephone calls are not answered at all.
There are cases when a
person can be referred from one call to another at the courts but end up
receiving no answers.
Lawyers are facing
serious difficulties in obtaining data
This situation also
violates a person's right to appeal.
For example, a decision
based on the results of a written examination of a case in an administrative
proceeding as well as the decision to terminate the proceedings shall enter
into force 15 days after its publication and, consequently, an appeal may be
filed before the expiration of the 15-day period.
A number of lawyers have
presented information about the fact that the judicial acts of the cases with
the above-mentioned proceedings are not published on DataLex, as a result of
which they are facing issues.
For example, the court
decision should be published in DataLex (the wording of the law - the
"official website of the judiciary system") on December 15, enter
into force 15 days after it; however, it is not published. As a result, appeal
deadlines expire, and people are facing serious risks. The issue is that the
mentioned judicial act will actually be published in DataLex, for example, on
January 21, but the publication date on DataLex will be mentioned December 15.
Hence, the person will be deprived of the opportunity to file an appeal, as the
appeal deadline has been missed.
Here a question arises:
how can a person prove that he missed the deadline, not because of his own
fault, but because the judicial authority body did not publish the judicial act
in time? Even if a person files an appeal and mentions the appeal is being done
after the deadline because the judicial act was published late in DataLex,
there is a high risk that the Administrative Court of Appeal will reject the
appeal and the person will not be able to prove otherwise.
In other words, the State
blocks a person's constitutional right to appeal due to its inaction or
shortcomings, causing artificial difficulties.
There are also
alarming-calls that the court scheduled a hearing, but from that appointment
until the day of the hearing, for almost 2 months, DataLex does not record the
day and time of the hearing. Paper notifications are also causing difficulties
for people.
Therefore, the described
condition is unacceptable. It means that the records in the Datalex system
should be restored immediately, thus eliminating the human rights violations
that have taken place, and eliminating the risks of future human rights
violations.
Mr. Arman Tatoyan
The Human Rights Defender
of Armenia
Հայերեն
