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  • Why does the govm't keep pushing laws that get negative reviews?

    FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
    http://www.forum18.org/

    The right to believe, to worship and witness
    The right to change one's belief or religion
    The right to join together and express one's belief

    ===============================================
    Thursday 20 January 2011
    ARMENIA: "WHY DOES THE GOVERNMENT KEEP PUSHING LAWS THAT GET NEGATIVE
    REVIEWS?"

    Nora Sarkisyan of Armenia's Justice Ministry has stated that draft
    Amendments restricting freedom of religion or belief will be changed to
    reflect the recommendations of a Council of Europe / Organisation for
    Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) legal review. This found that
    the Amendments do not comply with international human rights law. However,
    Vardan Astsatryan of the Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs Department
    claimed "the draft Amendments were in accordance with international human
    rights standards". Many human rights defenders and religious communities
    are concerned at what Pastor Rene Leonian described as "limitations on
    freedom of conscience, freedom of expression of our faith and limitation on
    human rights generally". Stepan Danielyan of the Collaboration for
    Democracy Centre thinks the Amendments "had the strong backing of Prime
    Minister Tigran Sarkisyan". But, "why does the government keep pushing laws
    in this area that get negative reviews?" Maria Aghajanyan of the Open
    Society Foundations asked. Danielyan and Aghajanyan are organising a civil
    society-government round table "to get the government talking - this is a
    question of transparency", Aghajanyan told Forum 18.

    ARMENIA: "WHY DOES THE GOVERNMENT KEEP PUSHING LAWS THAT GET NEGATIVE
    REVIEWS?"

    By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service , and
    John Kinahan, Forum 18 News Service

    Nora Sarkisyan, advisor to Armenia's Justice Minister Hrair Tovmasyan, has
    pledged that the Ministry will bring the text of proposed Amendments to the
    Religion Law, the Criminal Code, the Code of Administrative Offences and
    the Charity Law into line with the recommendations of a joint Council of
    Europe / Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) legal
    review. "We recognise that the review was negative and we are taking into
    account its views," Sarkisyan told Forum 18 News Service from the capital
    Yerevan on 20 January. "A Justice Ministry working group is now revising
    the proposed Amendments to bring them into line with the recommendations."
    She said the Justice Ministry aims to present revised texts to the Venice
    Commission for discussion at its next plenary meeting on 25 and 26 March.

    However, government religious affairs official Vardan Astsatryan of the
    Department for Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs - who said he was
    involved in drafting the 2010 Amendments - disagrees. "The draft Amendments
    were in accordance with international human rights standards," he claimed
    to Forum 18 from Yerevan the same day. "We didn't have very sharp
    differences with the Venice Commission. Only a few points need
    reconsideration."

    The published review - an Interim Joint Opinion - clearly states that parts
    of the latest proposed Amendments do not comply with international law and
    so with Armenia's international human rights commitments.

    "They said some things in favour and some against"

    Religious affairs official Astsatryan reluctantly told Forum 18 that
    representatives of the Evangelical Church (one of Armenia's evangelical
    Protestant churches) and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
    (commonly known as the Mormons) had separately come to him about the 2010
    Amendments. He refused to say if these communities were in favour or
    against the proposed Amendments. "They said some things in favour and some
    against."

    Pastor Rene Leonian, head of the Evangelical Church, which has 45
    congregations across Armenia, told Forum 18 in December 2010 that they
    feared "the limitations on freedom of conscience, freedom of expression of
    our faith and limitation on human rights generally" in the proposed
    Amendments. These concerns have been echoed, sometimes in private, by a
    wide range of human rights defenders and religious communities (see F18News
    8 December 2010 ).

    A number of religious communities have also approached the OSCE Office in
    Yerevan, as its Human Rights Officer Vladimir Tchountoulov told Forum 18 on
    20 January. "We are keeping a close eye on developments - it's part of our
    mandate."

    Amendments prepared in secret

    The current draft Amendments were prepared in secret by the Justice
    Ministry and sent for review - in English only - to the Council of Europe's
    Venice Commission. They only became known when the Venice Commission
    published them on its website on 30 November 2010. The draft Amendments to
    the Religion Law are available at
    , and those to
    the Criminal Code, the Code of Administrative Offences and the Charity Law
    are at .

    The Armenian government has refused to make the original Armenian text
    public (see F18News 8 December 2010
    ).

    The Venice Commission opinion - produced jointly with the OSCE Advisory
    Council on Freedom of Religion or Belief - was approved at the Venice
    Commission plenary meeting in Venice on 16 and 17 December 2010. They were
    made public on 22 December 2010 on the Venice Commission website
    , as well as
    on the OSCE Legislation Online website.

    Armenian government representatives at the plenary meeting in Venice
    insisted to the Venice Commission that Amendments would be made to the
    draft and a new text would be presented again. In response, the opinion was
    renamed an "interim opinion".

    2009 critical review ignored?

    The December 2010 Opinion came one and a half years after the similarly
    critical Venice Commission / OSCE review of restrictive proposed Amendments
    to Armenia's Religion Law and Criminal Code was made public in June 2009.
    The 2009 proposed Amendments were fiercely criticised by many human rights
    defenders and religious communities in Armenia at the time (see F18News 2
    July 2009 ).

    The latest Opinion notes that "a good deal of the [2009] specific comment
    also remains relevant since the drafters in many instances do not appear to
    have taken into account the recommendations in the 2009 Joint Opinion".

    Unclear wording affects wide range of human rights

    The latest Opinion by international legal experts notes that the latest
    Amendments are "often difficult to understand and vague so that the public
    will not be in a position to be certain of their rights and obligations".
    It calls for the Amendments "to make more precise and clear the scope of
    application of the law", and to "clarify which provisions of the Current
    and Draft Laws apply to all religious organisations and which apply only to
    those which are registered".

    The Opinion also notes that the Amendments affect "the linked rights of
    freedom of thought, conscience and religion as well as the right to freedom
    of expression and opinion and freedom of association and the right to
    non-discrimination which are protected in the Armenian Constitution as well
    as in the international treaties by which the Republic of Armenia is
    bound". These include the European Convention on Human Rights and
    Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and
    Political Rights (ICCPR).

    Ongoing serious problems

    Serious problems are common to both of Armenia's recent sets of proposed
    Amendments. As was the case with the previous Amendments, the latest
    Opinion bluntly indicates that parts of the latest proposed Amendments do
    not comply with international law and so with Armenia's international human
    rights commitments. Issues identified by the latest Opinion include:

    - that human rights are for everyone, whatever their citizenship. As the
    2010 Opinion puts it, the proposals should be amended "so as to guarantee
    freedom of conscience, religion or belief to everyone regardless of
    citizenship";

    - that the Amendments' defining of the scope of freedom of conscience,
    religion or belief is much narrower than international law requires of
    Armenia. For example the latest Opinion calls among other things for the
    Amendments "to recognize the freedom to change religion or belief", as well
    as "to expressly guarantee the freedom to manifest religion or belief in
    public or private, and to act according to one's religion or belief in
    daily life";

    - that the right to legal status must not be restricted. The latest Opinion
    calls for the Amendments "to clarify that any religious organisation is
    entitled to legal personality and has access to it if it wishes to avail of
    such status";

    - that the Amendments' defining of what a religious organisation is, what
    it can do, and how it can be registered is too unclear and restrictive. As
    the latest Opinion states, Armenia should:

    * "reconsider the definition of 'religious organisation' and ensure its
    compliance with international law";

    * "specify with greater precision which particular laws should a religious
    organization's statute comply with in order to satisfy registration
    requirements";

    * "ensure that the administrative requirements set by the Law are
    appropriate and consistent with international standards";

    * and "clarify that the prescribed list of rights of religious
    organisations is not an exclusive list whereby any activities not specified
    therein are automatically prohibited";

    - that registration is not a pre-condition for being able to exercise the
    right to freedom of religion or belief. As the Opinion states, "it is not
    clear whether individual groups are free to practise their religion without
    registration and this should be expressly permitted";

    - that the Amendments should narrow the scope for the authorities to stop
    the activities of religious organisations. As the Opinion states, there
    should be "a range of sanctions of varying severity, with liquidation being
    a measure of last resort applicable only in cases of repeated and/or grave
    breaches of the law committed by religious community as a whole or by a
    substantial number of its adherents";

    - that the possibility to share beliefs should not be narrowed in ways that
    break international law. The Opinion calls for the Amendments to
    "reconsider the blanket prohibition on religious advocacy and preaching in
    all 'learning' and 'social institutions' ", as well as "to ensure that the
    Law (and the Criminal Code) allow for some forms of proselytism and only
    prohibit 'improper' proselytism, in line with international law". The
    Opinion notes that "the right to discuss one's belief is protected" by both
    the freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression articles of the
    ECHR and ICCPR, and that "the terms defining proselytism are too broad and
    vague".

    * The Opinion also states that "the wording 'distortion of religious
    convictions' appears to be aimed more at protecting 'the exclusive mission'
    of the Armenian Church than at protecting the forum internum and other
    rights of those harassed by improper proselytism". As the Opinion notes, "a
    general notion of respect for religious feelings is not itself a right
    found within the freedom of thought, conscience and religion. On the
    contrary, it is inconsistent with the 'pluralism indissociable from a
    democratic society' entrenched in Article 9" of the ECHR;

    - that discrimination should not be permitted against followers of any
    religion or belief. The Opinion calls for the Amendments "to ensure that
    the expressly recognized privileged position of the Holy Apostolic Armenian
    Church is consistent with the principles regarding equality of treatment
    between religions";

    - and that Armenia should "consider allowing for charitable financial
    support for religious advocacy" The Amendments define "religious advocacy"
    as "the dissemination (irrespective of the form - a book, brochure,
    electronic carrier, etc.) of certain religious ideas and knowledge
    (doctrines) by a follower believing in them".

    February round table "to get the government talking"

    Civil society activists complain that no official government statement has
    yet been made in Armenia, responding to the critical Opinion. The
    government has also not announced how it intends to proceed.

    The Opinion has been welcomed by civil society activists. "It was a serious
    review which will prove very helpful here in Armenia", Stepan Danielyan,
    head of the Yerevan-based Collaboration for Democracy Centre, told Forum 18
    from Yerevan on 20 January.

    Collaboration for Democracy and the Open Society Foundations - Armenia are
    planning a joint round table conference on the proposed Amendments in
    Yerevan in early February, with participants from the government and civil
    society, including religious communities. They hope the Yerevan offices of
    the OSCE and Council of Europe will also be involved.

    "The whole idea is to get the government talking - this is a question of
    transparency," Maria Aghajanyan of the Open Society Foundations told Forum
    18 on 20 January. "Why does the government keep pushing laws in this area
    that get negative reviews? It happened in 2009 and again in 2010." To help
    public discussion, Open Society Foundation has sponsored a translation into
    Armenian of the Venice Commission / OSCE Opinion, which has been published
    on the Religions in Armenia website at .

    The Venice Commission with the OSCE has in recent years published a number
    of other critical legal reviews of various proposed Armenian laws
    .

    What will government do now?

    Sarkisyan of the Justice Ministry told Forum 18 that the Ministry will
    rework the current Amendments in the light of the Venice Commission / OSCE
    recommendations. "They will work from the draft text in hand, but it may
    become a new text," she said. Only after the Venice Commission and OSCE
    have completed a further review and given its comments will it be presented
    to other relevant Armenian government agencies and the government itself
    for comment and approval. After that the Amendments will be presented to
    Armenia's parliament, the National Assembly, she said.

    However, Astsatryan of the Department for Ethnic Minorities and Religious
    Affairs denied this. "I believe the Justice Ministry will send the text to
    us - and to other parts of the government - before it goes back to the
    Venice Commission," he told Forum 18.

    Sarkisyan pledged that the text of any new proposed Amendments would be
    published in Armenian on the Justice Ministry website "in line with usual
    procedures". She said she has been working at the Ministry only for one
    month, so could not explain why the 2010 Amendments were not made public in
    Armenian.

    The 2010 Amendments had been prepared by the then Justice Minister Gevorg
    Danielyan and Ministry officials, but Danielyan was sacked in December
    2010. So both the Justice Minister Tovmasyan and his advisor Sarkisyan have
    been in their jobs for only one month.

    Amendments to the 2003 Law on Alternative Service are also with the Justice
    Ministry for review. As of 1 December 2010, 73 Jehovah's Witness young men
    were prisoners of conscience for refusing to do compulsory military
    service, or military-controlled alternative service (see F18News 7 December
    2010 ).

    But does Prime Minister support restrictions?

    Given the apparent difference of opinion within the government, Danielyan
    of Collaboration for Democracy remains wary. "I believe the 2010 Amendments
    had the strong backing of Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisyan," he told Forum
    18 from Yerevan on 20 February. "A year ago he spoke in public that the
    idea that the Church and the State should be separate is an outdated
    concept. He has special contacts with the Armenian Apostolic Church, and
    there'll be lobbying from him and the Church to make the Amendments
    harsher."

    Prime Minister Sarkisyan is the current head of the board of the Armenian
    Apostolic Church's Ararat Diocese, which includes the capital Yerevan, the
    Chancellery of the Armenian Apostolic Church's headquarters in Echmiadzin
    told Forum 18 on 20 January.

    Astsatryan of the Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs Department told
    Forum 18 on 20 January that Prime Minister Sarkisyan has made no comment on
    the proposed Amendments, and plays no role. An aide to the Prime Minister
    told Forum 18 the same day that the government has "one position", not
    several, and that this issue is being handled by the Justice Ministry.

    2009 proposed Amendments not dead?

    Aghajanyan of the Open Society Foundations points out that the 2009
    proposed Amendments restricting freedom of religion or belief remain on the
    National Assembly agenda (see F18News 24 March 2009
    ). They were approved
    by the National Assembly before being criticised by the Venice Commission
    and OSCE (see F18News 2 July 2009
    ). "Since these
    Amendments are also on the agenda, they will have to be discussed," she
    told Forum 18. (END)

    More coverage of freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Armenia and
    the unrecognised entity of Nagorno-Karabakh is at


    A compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
    (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments can be found at
    .

    A printer-friendly map of Armenia is available at
    .
    (END)

    © Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
    You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
    F18News http://www.forum18.org/

    Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
    http://www.forum18.org/




    From: A. Papazian
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