The Human Rights Defender reaffirms her readiness to
receive citizens who raise issues of protection of their rights, including
participants of various political processes.
The Defender is always ready to receive persons,
including participants in political processes, and to discuss any issue related
to the protection of human rights, to take the necessary measures for their
solution within the scope of the Defender's powers, observing the methodology
and principles typical of human rights institutions.
Referring to the questions raised during the assembly
held in front of the building of the Human Rights Defender's Office on June 4,
the Human Rights Defender considers it necessary to emphasize the following:
The claim that the Human Rights Defender only makes
public statements regarding the implementation of rapid response visits does
not correspond to reality.
During this period, there are many public statements of
the Human Rights Defender regarding alleged violations of rights during the
exercise of the right to freedom of assembly.
The allegations regarding the Human Rights Defender's
failure to address specific cases, which refer to such cases when the Defender
made public statements recording the names of persons and cases, are especially
incomprehensable.
For example, the Human Rights Defender immediately issued
a public statement regarding the incident involving the RA National Assembly
deputy Ashot Simonyan. In that context, the Defender specifically stated: "As
a result of the implemented monitoring, a case was recorded when a member of
the RA National Assembly was taken into custody by police officers allegedly
using physical force. Later, according to the clarification received from the
Police, the deputy was released from the police car. The Defender emphasizes
once again that the deputy of the RA National Assembly is endowed with a
special constitutional and legal status, the latter can be deprived of his
freedom according to a special procedure defined by the legislation. The Defender
has referred to this issue many times, and considers the existence of the
mentioned practice to be worrisome.
The Defender emphasizes that it is necessary to introduce
a serious toolkit in the direction of guaranteeing the exclusion of the aforementioned
practice.
The Defender considers the use of disproportionate force
by police officers not conditioned by the need to detain a person to be highly
unacceptable under any circumstances. Each case of the use of disproportionate
physical force must be immediately properly assessed in order to prevent the
continuation of such cases.
Moreover, cases were recorded when the use of force
against a person continued in the conditions when the latter was already under
the control of police officers. The Defender considers the mentioned working
method to be inadmissible.
During the monitoring of the Human Rights Defender and
the visits to the Police Stations, it was recorded that there are many cases of
detention without presenting a legal demand, without clarifying the reasons and
grounds for detaining citizens, and without informing people about their
minimum rights.
Cases were also recorded when, regardless of the end of
the actions carried out against a person within the framework of administrative
proceedings, the persons continued to be kept in the police stations until the
3 hours defined by the law expired.
In this regard, the Defender specially emphasizes that
the above-mentioned 3 hours is the maximum period in which the Police can
deprive a person of his liberty within the framework of administrative arrest.
At the same time, before the expiration of that period, after the completion of
administrative actions with the person's participation, the person must be
immediately released, regardless of the fact that 3 hours have passed from the
moment the latter was actually taken into custody."
In order to make the mentioned cases the subject of
investigation and give a proper legal assessment, the Human Rights Defender has
also sent relevant letters to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic
of Armenia and the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Armenia.
In one of her statements, the Defender also referred to
the case concerning MP Artur Khachatryan, issuing a similar public statement.
At the same time, the Human Rights Defender has
constantly emphasized that "guaranteeing the peaceful course of the
assembly also implies compliance with the requirements set by the legislation
by the organizers and participants of the meeting."
It refers, inter alia, to abstaining from violence, calls
for violence, and manifestations of hate speech during the gathering, which are
also obvious and problematic."
‼️ During the gatherings, there are many cases of
spreading discriminatory speech and hate speech against different groups of
people on all grounds, which the Defender considers worrisome and unacceptable,
stressing that public figures should not only refrain from spreading such
speech, but also oppose it.
The Defender also issued statements regarding the cases
of allegedly obstructing the professional activities of journalists,
highlighting the importance of guaranteeing the unimpeded professional
activities of journalists. All cases have been addressed to the competent state
bodies.
The Defender emphasizes the role of journalists in a
democratic society, today she had a briefing with journalists, and during the
eight months of last year, she had about 40 interviews.
As a result of the Human Rights Defender's intervention,
a number of problems were solved, for example, the access of lawyers to the
police stations, ensuring the right of people to receive proper legal
assistance, the right to call, providing medical care, moving the vehicles of
the protestors from the specially protected area, etc.
There are many public statements of the Defender related
to all the cases mentioned above. Some of them can be found, at the following
links:
https://ombuds.am/am/site/ViewNews/2989,
https://www.ombuds.am/am/site/ViewNews/2943,
https://ombuds.am/am/site/ViewNews/2996,
https://ombuds.am/am/site/ViewNews/2965,
https://ombuds.am/am/site/ViewNews/2959,
https://ombuds.am/am/site/ViewNews/2950,
https://ombuds.am/am/site/ViewNews/2946.
As for the activities of the Human Rights Defender in the
border settlements, it should be noted that the Defender personally visits the
border settlements, records the problems, and presents them within the
framework of public reports translated into English. Moreover, the Human Rights
Commissioner of the Council of Europe, Ms. Dunja Mijatović, also referred to
those reports regarding the problems related to human rights in the border
settlements. On April 13, Anahit Manasyan also carried out fact-finding
activities in the Tavush region. All the issues raised by the citizens, as well
as those recorded, particularly regarding the right to property, the right to
education, security guarantees and other rights, were immediately discussed
with the competent state authorities both verbally and in written procedure.
Special attention was paid to the issue related to the
protection of children's rights, including in the context of schools and a
number of other issues. Considering the sensitivity and importance of the
issue, the Defender continues the discussions related to the above-mentioned
issues. Moreover, from the viewpoint of children's rights, the Defender
highlighted the importance of guaranteeing such a format of children's
participation in the assemblies, where the "best interest" of the
child will be considered, by the competent state bodies, as well as by the
organizers of the assemblies, participants, mass media and other actors.
Every month, the Human Rights Defender carries out
mandatory visits to regional settlements, personally meets citizens, collects
problems and offers solutions for them. You can get acquainted with the message
about the visit to Tavush, as well as the reports related to the fact-finding
activities in the border settlements, through the following links:
https://www.ombuds.am/am/site/ViewNews/2913,
https://www.ombuds.am/.../4e73af39ae6617df7437605f57eb01c...,
https://www.ombuds.am/.../76adf8c4ef52d036fab368d87e0bea5...,
https://www.ombuds.am/.../e12940a4c1afee3703896176aa53825...
:
A few days ago, the Defender visited the disaster zone of
Lori region, met with the citizens, and collected the problems. A number of
issues related to human rights were presented in the text of the public
message, have already been discussed with competent state bodies and
international partners, and solutions are being developed for them. The
Defender emphasizes that the extent of the disaster is enormous and considers
it important to provide proper coverage.
Հայերեն
