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The issues of human rights and democracy in Armenia have been in the spotlight of foreign and international organizations and have been periodically reflected in their reports. Moreover, they are emphasized in the international cooperation programs, determining economic cooperation provided to a certain country by the progress in that sphere. The latest such document of cooperation was the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement between the European Union and Armenia (CEPA), which is based on respect for democratic principles, rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms.

It should be noticed that for years the Government of the Republic of Armenia has developed mechanisms for concealing problems with human rights and democratic setback and for falsifying them in front of international partners, maneuvering parallelly in different realities, on the one hand grossly violating human rights and fundamental freedoms with impunity, on the other hand imitating “efforts” (for example, for developing National Strategy and  Concept for Human Rights Protection that have no impact on preventing human rights violations in practice) to gain the favor and continue to receive economic and sometimes even political assistance of international partners.

By Resolution 1900 (2012) of October 3, 2012 Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) gave the definition of the term ‘political prisoner’. Thus “a person deprived of his or her personal liberty is to be regarded as a ‘political prisoner’ if:

• the detention has been imposed in violation of one of the fundamental guarantees set out in the European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols (ECHR), in particular freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression and information, freedom of assembly and association;
• the detention has been imposed for purely political reasons without connection to any offence;
• for political motives, the length of the detention or its conditions are clearly out of proportion to the offence the person has been found guilty of or is suspected of;
• for political motives, he or she is detained in a discriminatory manner as compared to other persons; or, the detention is the result of proceedings which were clearly unfair and this appears to be connected with political motives of the authorities.”

It is also clearly defined in the resolution that “Those deprived of their personal liberty for terrorist crimes shall not be considered political prisoners if they have been prosecuted and sentenced for such crimes according to national legislation and the European Convention on Human Rights.”

There are scores of individuals now being held in various penitentiaries and places of detention who are deprived of their personal liberty (being arrested, detained or imprisoned as a criminal punishment) in violation of meeting international standards in pre-trial investigation and in pursuance of repressive attitude in trial, more apparently demonstrated toward opposition figures, failing to provide factual basis for respective judicial decision-making and elementary guarantees for human rights protection in judicial procedures prior to making the decisions, as well as appropriate conditions where the arrested and detained individuals and convicts are held, and appropriate terms they serve. The mentioned nonconformities with the approved judicial practice manifested toward these individuals allow us to consider them political prisoners within the context of the aforementioned resolution.

Hence, during February 9, 2018 court session of opposition figure Jirair Sefilian and other defendants in the case, the state prosecutor, having insufficient evidence to prove the guilt of the accused, nonetheless trumped up charges against them, requiring that the court impose punishments which are clearly out of proportion to the offence they have been found guilty of, sentencing Sefilian to eleven years in prison, Gevorg Safaryan and Sasounik Kirakosyan to four years and six months, Nerses Poghosyan to four years, Hrayr Topchyan and Galust Grigoryan to three years, and Hovhannes Petrosyan to two years in prison.

The trends of general democratic setback in the country following 2015 constitutional amendments indicate that the same vengeful attitude toward the individuals who do not tolerate the unlawfulness of the authorities and consistently criticize them is sought to be applied toward other political prisoners.

Respect for human rights and democracy are not exercised in a country where there are political prisoners, and where the score may be settled against those who have alternative thinking, who exercise freedoms of conscience, expression and assembly. In these circumstances all the obligations and high-level commitments defined by all treaties become formalistic and are destined to be null and void. The aforementioned attitude toward political figures is a violation of articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, since along with punishing the actions intended for exercising rights and freedoms, they pursue, in our opinion another intolerable purpose, which is typical of criminal law, i.e. prevention of future manifestations of free speech as well.

We call on the authorities of the Republic of Armenia demanding that the political prisoners be immediately released.

We call on the international community to give proper assessment to setback for democracy and human rights violations in Armenia.

Immediate release of political prisoners should be the main and unquestionable precondition for the development of democracy in the Republic of Armenia.

Transparency International Anticorruption Center
Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office
Journalists’ Club “Asparez”
Helsinki Committee of Armenia
Women’s Resource Center
“Union of Informed Citizens” NGO
“Protection of Rights Without Borders” NGO
Public Journalism Club
Analytical Centre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation
Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression
“For Equal Rights” NGO
Open Society Foundations – Armenia
“Peace Dialogue” NGO
“Center of Economic Right” NGO
Foundation Against the Violation of Law NGO
“Rights and Freedom Center” NGO