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Throughout May-July of 2013 Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor conducted human rights monitoring at the RA neuro-psychiatric medical facility. During the monitoring the organization’s staff members talk with persons undergoing treatment at psychiatric hospitals, find out the causes of their stay there as well as issues and problems of their concern.

The staff members of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor had a meeting with Greta Karapetyan/name and surname have been changed/ in June of 2013 at one of the psychiatric hospitals. The latter informed she didn’t have mental health issues and her brother arranged her stay at the clinic in order to appropriate their flat, which is their common property.

Since Greta Karapetyan was reluctant to undergo treatment at the psychiatric hospital, the head of the psychiatric institution applied to the Court to have her subjected to enforced treatment.

The court hearing had been held before the meeting of organizations’ staff with the woman; however, she had no information about the results. Anyway, she hoped to be discharged as she had been told by the Judge everything would end well. The organizations’ staff provided the woman with a contacting phone number by expressing willingness to support her upon her wish.

Later, when the Court adopted a ruling to subject the woman to enforced treatment, the latter contacted the organization’s staff member for support.

HCA Vanadzor recruited advocate Tigran Hayrapetyan for the protection of G. Karapetyan’s interested via the financial support of Open Society Foundations-Armenia.

On August 22, 2013 the organization’s staff met with the advocate to find out the status of the case, expectations and upcoming steps.

Advocate T. Hayrapetyan presented the case details by stressing they weren’t going to stop at that and would be applying to the European Court of Human Rights upon necessity.

T. Hayrapetyan thoroughly told the woman’s problem, “She is living in a very bad setting, even the most healthy person can find himself in a mentally challenging situation while staying there for a few hours”. The advocate singles out a number of issues, out of which the partial attitude of the Court towards the woman strikes attention. Specifically, the Court didn’t accept the appeal submitted of the woman with mental health issues submitted to the RA Court of Appeals on the grounds that the appeal wasn’t in line with the order prescribed by law and that certain data are missing, such as the case number, the full name of the psychiatric hospital, at the same time, the receipt of confirming the state fee payment.

The appeal of Advocate T. Hayrapetyan directed to the RA Court of Appeals was also declined due to the absence of the receipt confirming the state fee payment.

Nonetheless, according to the advocate, the RA Court of First Instance had accepted the application submitted by the Head of the psychiatric hospital, which didn’t also comply with the order defined by law. It turns out that the Court accepts the application of the Head of the psychiatric hospital, who is actually adept at such cases and has applied to the court already several times, by the way, without the state fee payment, which according to the Judge, is in line with the law. Whereas, it doesn’t accept the claim of the woman, who, according to the psychiatrists’ conclusion, suffers from mental health issues, poses peril to the society and is in need of inpatient treatment. T. Hayrapetyan is concerned over declining the appeal submitted by him. “How can a person locked in the psychiatric hospital give money to the advocate to pay the state fee?”

Another issue also poses a concern. Her brother appeared at the court hearing as the citizens’ legal representative, who wasn’t actually authorized by Greta Karapetyan. Moreover, the legal representative of the citizen in the court was the person who was interested in the placement of G. Karapetyan at the psychiatric hospital.

“At the age of 20 my sister was run over by a car and as a result, got numerous fractures. I want my sister to be treated and lead a normal life. Over six years my sister’s state has aggravated, she has been calling various state bodies and submitting claims. I have fears for my children and me, since my sister’s conduct has changed within the last six years. Nobody deprives her of the flat, she has completely separated her room, her life style, the door of her room is always locked.  I merely want my sister to be treated and be like everybody”, her brother made such a speech.

Apart from the fact that her brother appeared as the legal representative of the citizen, no lawyer was involved for providing legal support to her, in the event that the citizen posed a verbal request to be provided with legal support.

The fact that the conclusion of the psychiatric commission was taken as grounds for treatment by the court is also concerning, which according to the advocate, was a few lines only and doesn’t provide grounded justifications for the need of enforced treatment.

G. Karapetyan’s advocate added that to the inquiry sent by him to the psychiatric hospital, whereby, the advocate demanded the list of medications for G. Karapetyan’s treatment was perfunctory and general and didn’t specify the names of any medications. Besides, as G. Karapetyan informed she didn’t take the medications during her stay at the psychiatric hospital, only on the last day she was forced to take in pills before being discharged.

It turns out that it is quite easy in the RA to, so called, imprison, subject a person to enforced treatment, which can pursue mercenary goals and it is almost impossible for the citizen to prevent and prove all this….

The case of this woman is not the only one and the staff members of the psychiatric institutions also expressed such a concern during the implementation of the monitoring. After the aforementioned, we leave it to you to draw inferences…

Currently, advocate Tigran Hayrapetyan sent the second appeal to the RA Court of Appeals already accompanied with a motion regarding the state fee. Updates over the case will be presented additionally.

Tigran Hayrapetyan is in the first picture