Free of charge Legal Consultation in the towns of Stepanavan, Alaverdi, Tashir and Spitak
00:00, June 30, 2008
In April 2008, 24 citizens applied to HCA legal assistance centers in Stepanavan, Alaverdi, Tashir and Spitak to get legal consultation.
The employees of HCA Vanadzor provided them with legal consultation and answered all their questions.
It is important to mention that the citizens’ problems were registered in special journals.
The issues for which people applied to HCA Vanadzor centers are as follows:
Alaverdi
In Alaverdi one of the issues raised concerned the violation of a labour right:
1. Citizen A.M. and some others (about 70 citizens) were employed in “G M Magharo” CJSC in Spring 2007 on a contractual basis. However, the company did not pay A. M.’s and other 50 citizens’ salary. Moreover, 6 months after employing them he gathered the employees’ labour contracts in order to make changes in them and didn’t give them back.
HCA Vanadzor started the protection of the rights of employees, which is still underway. The organization found out whom “G M Magharo” CJSC belonged to and now it is going to take relevant measures in accordance with the order defined by law.
The information about the results will be further publicized.
The citizens’ inquiries concerned both human rights and the legislative mechanisms, which provide the application of the law.
Social right
1. Can the family be deprived of state allowance due to the raise of pension?
Parallel to the raise of pension on January 1, 2008 changes were made in RA law “On State Allowances.” In accordance with those changes the order of assessing the level of insecurity of families changed. So even the smallest raise in pension is a basis to cut the family allowance.
2. Can anyone with a group of disability who gets allowance make use of social support by the state?
According to RA law “On Social Assistance for the Disabled” there is social assistance in a form of a pension, and according to RA law “On Social Protection of the Disabled in the Republic of Armenia” and the Government’s resolution “On Confirming the order of allocating prosthesis-orthopedic articles, and technical and other means of rehabilitation” there is support in a form of prosthesis-orthopedic and rehabilitation articles.
Family right
What are the obligations of the father towards a child after divorce when the child’s guardian is the grandmother (mother’s mother)?
The father is obliged to pay alimony to the child legal representative – his guardian, who has all the rights of a parent prescribed by law.
Right to Information
4. How can the citizen verify whether an industrial cooperative works or not?
The sate registration office at RA Ministry of Justice registering legal entities of manages all the information about Ltd-s, former cooperatives, and joint-stock companies. In this case it is necessary to make a written inquiry for getting information from the state regional (where the cooperative functioned) registration office at RA Ministry of Justice and to pay 1000 AMD state duty.
Stepanavan
One of the problems here concerned a fact of violation of the right to ownership, and another one was about a labour right.
Right to Ownership
As a consequence of illegal decision made by the Municipality of Stepanavan, the right of Stepanavan resident E. T to ownership was violated. Without E. T’s knowledge, 5 people were registered in the address of his house.
Based on this fact by the decision of the Municipality a 4-room flat was allocated to him, as a family consisting of 6 persons.
In fact, only E. T was the member of that family, who then received the certificate of ownership for that flat. The flat allocated to E. T. with the right to ownership was then sold by another person without E. T’s knowledge.
HCA Vanadzor sent a corresponding message to K. Shahbazian, prosecutor of Lori region. K. Shahbazian informed the organization with a letter that the case had been sent to Lori region Investigative department of RA Police of with corresponding documents to proceed the case.
Labour Right
Citizens have worked in a condominium on a contractual basis, which as not paid salaries for several months. Later it was liquidated and didn’t have an assignee. Is it possible to get the salary of all those months from a bankrupt?
According to RA legislation, the state labour Department controls labour legal relations. That is to say, before an Ltd. is recognized bankrupt, the state labour department could prevent violation of the labour right. In this case, the citizen didn’t apply to state labour department.
According to RA law “On Bankruptcy” assessment and sale of each Ltd. property is done, and then the debts are paid off. Salary debt is coming afterwards. If the money of the whole Ltd. property is not enough to pay all debts the rest is not liable to payback.
In fact, the law has some shortcomings, because of which no legal mechanism for restoring citizens’ violated rights functions.
The citizens’ inquiries concerned both human rights and the legislative mechanisms, which provide the application of the law.
Family/Domestic Right
1. What can a citizen do when the name in the passport is not the same as in other documents and cannot have any dealing.
The citizen should apply to court to confirm the legal fact-the identity of the person under different names.
Right to Personal Immunity
2. What can a citizen do, when the neighbour insults him?
Offence is an action subject to criminal liability, for which the victim should apply in a written form to local Police.
3. The court has made a decision on alimony, but the decision isn’t being executed. How can one receive the alimony?
According to the Civil Procedure Code and RA law “On Compulsory Enforcement of Court Decrees” if the debtor does not obey the court decision then it is executed by enforcement bodies. It is necessary to take a court claim (execution paper) from the court and submit to compulsory enforcement agency.
Right to Housing
4. Are the families, who lost their houses due to disaster, provided with flats or not?
The solution of the housing problems of 56 families from Stepanavan is included in 2008 Government’s Program.
It is necessary to apply to the community head (with a letter) to know whether or not he is included in the waiting list and in which position.
Social right
5. Do the veterans of the Patriotic War make use of privileges for paying taxes, fees and utilities?
According to RA law “On Veterans of Patriotic War” only disabled veterans have the right to pay for the house, garbage collection, telephone and radio service with 50% discount. No other privileges are defined.
Spitak
The citizens’ inquiries concerned both human rights and the legislative mechanisms, which provide the application of the law.
Family/Domestic Right
The marriage has not been registered in accordance with the law, though paternity has been acknowledged. The father has a second group of disability. Can the mother receive from him alimony for the children?
The circumstance of not being registered in the Registration Agency of Civil Acts doesn’t free the parent from his obligations towards his children. Therefore, the other parent who takes care for the child can demand alimony from the other parent. If alimony isn’t paid upon mutual agreement, it is necessary to go to court. If the parent, who pays alimony, has a first or second group of disability, the court can decrease the size of alimony in accordance with the order defined by law.
2. What extra obligations does a parent have (already paying alimony) connected with expenses for the child’s illness?
The court decides the order and size of paying additional expenses (in a form of money).
Social Right
3. Does the state foresee housing support for socially insecure families who are homeless not due to disaster?
2008 Government’s program does not offer such support.
Right to Ownership
4. Can a son/daughter require real estate or a part of it from the parents in their lifetime?
No one has any right to a person’s own property, even if they are the owner’s parents, children, sisters and brothers. Children can acquire right to their parents’ property after their death only in case of heritage.