Human Rights in Armenia are Regressing
00:00, April 12, 2011 | News
The US Department of State has published its annual report reflecting the situation of Human Rights during 2010. In the 60-page report regarding Armenia, the US State Department referred to both general and specific comprehensive issues on human rights.
“From the factual perspective, the current report is more comprehensive than the one from the previous year. It has a crucially important emphasis: specific issues regarding Human Rights were highlighted, and the estimations were more straight-forward this year”, stated Artur Sakunts, Head of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office.
According to the Human Rights Defender, this year’s report by the US Department of State asserts that Armenia is recording regressions in respect to Human Rights Protection. “Every chance to reinstate violated rights and decrease the volume of re-occurrences has been shattered”. After thoroughly examining the report, Human Rights Defender, Artur Sakunts, pointed out the most prominent violations. Particularly, the report records that “no development in the clarification of death circumstances of 8 civilians and 2 servicemen was recorded during the 2008 post-election clashes”.
The fact that no grounded investigation was conducted over the Police actions of “political prosecution” after 2008 March 1 events was also evaluated as unsatisfactory. “Hence, there was no proportionate application of Police forces, and no accusations were initiated against police officials, however, 2 of them were detained, but were soon released”, noted human rights defender. The latter stated that the elections also became main target by the US Department of State.
“Among them were extensive violations during by-election for a parliamentary seat in January, 2010 that restricted the rights of citizens to peacefully alter their authorities”, is stated in the report. Sakunts noted that this year’s report estimates the 2008 presidential elections and post-election events as satisfactory. The report touches upon the process of releasing “convicts for apparent political motivations” and affirms that a number of convicts are still in detention facilities.
The report sets substantial significance on the fact that during the previous year “suspicious” death cases were recorded in non-combat circumstances in the army and that “the way the officials and privates harass and degrade their subordinates and stay unpunished “continues non-stop”.
“The report is unbiased and up-to-date. It’s an adequate response to the situation”, stated Artur Sakunts, the Human Rights Defender. Will the authorities draw relevant conclusions from the report? Sakunts noted that after the previous year’s report the RA Government hasn’t taken appropriate measures to mitigate the situation. The report states that the activities of the Judiciary and Executive Power are inter-relatedand that “the Judiciary is subject to the political pressures of the Executive Power”. There was a reference to Vahan Khalafyan’s case, and ungrounded physical assaults towards civilians and press representatives by police officials. “Mass Media, specifically, television, lacks principles of impartial interpretation while pluralism prevails in their work”.
Cases of violations against journalists, acts of terror and censorship against mass media were also recorded. The US Department of State estimated that the RA Authorities and laws have restricted the freedom of religion and as well as participation in political rallies. Cases of corruption, trafficking, and other issues were also touched upon in the report.