On June 8, the Human Rights Defender Ms. Kristinne Grigoryan participated in the joint conference titled “The Judiciary as Guardian of Democracy” organized within the framework of the EU/COE the Partnership for Good Governance “Support to the Implementation of Judicial Reform in Armenia” project, in cooperation the Constitutional Court of Armenia.
The event was attended by the delegation of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) headed by Ms. Claire Bazy-Malaurie, the President of the Commission, representatives of the COE Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law, the Presidents and judges of the Constitutional and Cassation Courts of Armenia, members of the Supreme Judicial Council, judges of different instances, lawyers, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, ambassadors of the EU member states, representatives of the International Organizations and CSOs.
The Defender Ms. Kristinne Grigoryan delivered a speech at the panel discussion titled “Upholding Public Trust Through Accountability and Communication”.
The Defender stressed the need for trust in public institutions, shared the issues of the Human Rights Defender's Office, particularly noting that “the trust is an opportunity to have a wider impact on the restoration of human rights and prevention of violations, but the trust also requires daily care and attention, maintaining the principle of making independent, objective and credible assessments based on legal basis and international standards."
The Defender especially emphasized the need for effective communication with both sides during the ombudsman's mediation and provided examples of effective communication, when the Human Rights Defender acted as a mediator and sometimes as a "translator" between the government, local administrations and people with different needs and communities.
“In our mediator's mission we do not consider the issue only from one side and before recording a violation we always try to prevent it, making a proposal to the state body to solve the issue, sharing our knowledge on international standard or good practice referring to the issue, being engaged in the discussions between the individuals and state bodies, sometimes directly requiring to organize such discussions.
Our recommendations refer not only to making legislative reforms, but also to changing poor or risky practices, we also suggest providing education and awareness on human rights both to the public and to state bodies, realizing that the protection of human rights is not the sole responsibility of the Defender, it is the obligation of the State, which we are ready to assist in.
Often, when all these efforts do not achieve results, we also publically register issues which are sometimes unpleasant.
These of course, are not approved by all officials, but this is our mission as a democratic institution, to raise the issue, when we have exhausted all possible means to eliminate the violation or restore the right, and we do it within the framework of our preventive function to exclude further violations”-the Defender summed-up.
The panel discussion was summarized with questions and answers session between the speakers and participants.
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