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The Republic Of Armenia Has Been Reprimanded For Cases Of Political

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  • The Republic Of Armenia Has Been Reprimanded For Cases Of Political

    THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA HAS BEEN REPRIMANDED FOR CASES OF POLITICAL PERSECUTION

    April 1 2013

    A mid-term assessment given by the Civil Society Institute (CSI),
    the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC), and the International
    Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) urges the Republic of Armenia: "End
    politically motivated prosecutions of individuals deemed opposition,
    and take steps to strengthen the rule of law, including respecting
    minimum guarantees as laid out in the International Covenant on Civil
    and Political Rights, equal protection of the law, and judicial
    independence." www.aravot.am inquired during a conversation with
    human rights advocates whether one could see the government of the
    Republic of Armenia show political will to solve problems, along with
    the international organizations' reminding the Republic of Armenia
    about the above-mentioned issues. Vardan Harutyunyan, the manager
    of the Rights and Freedom Center, said in this regard: "That foreign
    organizations talk about the issues of prisoners of conscience, people
    persecuted for political reasons is good and effective leverage that
    can be used against the government of the Republic of Armenia.

    However, I don't see any manifestation of political will. The
    government of the Republic of Armenia has used and continues to
    use political persecutions to strengthen its position. A striking
    example of that is the case of the Armenian National Congress (ANC)
    youth, Tigran Arakelyan. Pressure from outside should be so strong
    that the government of the Republic of Armenia is not compelled to
    take measures. Otherwise, a long time is needed for the government
    to realize the essence and importance of the issue." In response to
    the counterarguments put forward by the government that the foreign
    organizations used the above-mentioned issues for internal political
    pressures, V. Harutyunyan said: "There are no limits for human
    rights protection, it is above the state interests, the government's
    interests, and I don't have any such fear. Let me remind with regard
    to those counterarguments that the Soviet Union would also say, 'They
    interfere in our internal affairs' etc. Thus, all dictatorships try
    to justify themselves like that. Human rights are not internal affairs.

    For example, if in Brazil, in Canada, in America, human rights
    are violated; it is also our, the Armenians', business too." Tigran
    Yegoryan, an attorney at law, recalled the post-election developments
    with regard to the raised question and expressed the following opinion:
    "If political will has been shown, we would have at least seen fair
    trials of electoral cases, whereas we see the Special Investigative
    Service (SIS) be engaged in petty confrontations with counselors,
    wishing to prove that it is the SIS, not an ordinary investigative
    body. In that case, political will is out of the question, when
    the most important investigative body doesn't conduct an efficient
    investigation into the cases of electoral fraud." T.

    Yegoryan gave the example of the cases of Narine Ismail, Artak
    Hambardzumyan, and Narek Babayan and went into detail: "Can political
    will be in question, when trying to make an impression, prosecutors and
    representatives of the police of different caliber talked about their
    readiness at different TV shows to conduct impartial investigation
    into more than 20 cases, but we witness now how the majority of
    those cases are declined one by one. What is the problem that the
    state doesn't show enough political will and doesn't properly examine
    all the cases of electoral fraud, moreover, different investigative
    bodies, but not the SIS, examine and decline the majority of them,
    whereas the law requires that the SIS conduct investigation. For
    example, before the ruling of the Constitutional Court, in the most
    heated period, different prosecuting bodies had been very active;
    their representatives would put forward numbers regarding the prepared
    material and the investigations launched all the tame. After the ruling
    of the Constitutional Court, no one has talked about them. Moreover, we
    still have complaints about the investigations that were not launched
    during the 2012 National Assembly election. Those investigations
    have not been carried through so far. They started to decline all
    those cases secretly. Political will is out of the question given
    all this." Tatev HARUTYUNYAN

    Read more at: http://en.aravot.am/2013/04/01/153319/

    © 1998 - 2013 Aravot - News from Armenia


    From: Baghdasarian
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