Hranush Kharatyan: “There is only one thing that this Constitution can change in your life: you will have fewer opportunities to refer to Constitution for your rights”
15:58, October 29, 2015 | News, Own news
On October 28, Vanadzor hosted a workshop and discussion on constitutional amendments. The discussion was facilitated by Artur Sakunts, Chairman of HCA Vanadzor, and attended by speakers below: Stepan Danielyan, Chairman of Partnership for Democracy NGO; ethnographer and Candidate of Historical Sciences Hranush Kharatyan and Haykuhi Harutyunyan, Chairman of Rights Protection without Borders NGO. First, the speakers touched upon controversial issues, highlighting a number of articles in the draft Constitution restricting human rights and creating extra obstacles to their effective protection. In his speech, Stepan Danielyan, Chairman of Partnership for Democracy NGO, highlighted the importance of holding elections without frauds, mentioned a number of formulations in the draft Constitution and stated that they might cause big problems. Hranush Kharatyan mostly focused on social issues and pointed out that, “There is only one thing that this Constitution can change in your life: you will have fewer opportunities to refer to Constitution for your rights.” Haykuhi Harutyunyan, Chairman of Rights Protection without Borders NGO, touched upon the issues from a legal perspective especially emphasizing the fact that under the wording of the articles on human rights, the state “no longer assumes the obligation” to ensure protection of human rights, but rather promotes or supports them. The discussion participants asked questions to the speakers on the formulations and qualifications. They also prioritized the active participation of the civil society in such processes. Summing up the discussion, the speakers unanimously emphasized that actually, we are invited to approve of a document with norms to be regulated by still indefinite laws and the citizens have no leverage to influence their content.