Artur Sakunts: Valery Osipyan is not the person to ensure human rights; his appointment is unacceptable
16:33, May 11, 2018 | News, Other news
Valery Osipyan is not the person who can ensure the solution of the issues related to human rights. His appointment as Chief of Police is unacceptable.
This was mentioned by Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor human rights defender Artur Sakunts in his interview with Tert.am. He is of the opinion that the decision needs to be reviewed and that human rights defenders shall take certain steps.
“I view any appointment in the interim government from the perspective of the guarantees ensuring free and fair snap parliamentary elections, which should be based on the principle of ensuring the standards of a lawful and democratic state. For a very long time, at least since March 1, 2008, Valery Osipyan has been involved in the unlawful detention of protesters and the use of special measures,” he highlighted.
As stated by the human rights defender, Valery Osipyan has hindered protesters’ right to freedom of assembly on multiple occasions, including during April’s Velvet Revolution. According to him, a legal assessment should be given to determine the role that the current Chief of Police played when 46 persons were injured as a result of the use of special measures on April 16.
“I am excited about the revolution, too. I welcome it and supported it. The institution of authoritarian governance and the further dictatorial institution deriving from it were prevented. However, a more effective implementation of civil oversight is more than necessary now. There may be different types of criticism towards the newly developing actions according to political interests and personal or group interests. However, we formulate our criticism or assessment on the basis of the standards of democracy and human rights. The field of criticism should not be distorted, and the discussion of the problems should not be moved to fields where no substantial solution is offered, and the solution is rather offered on the basis of personal, group or political interests,” Artur Sakunts highlighted.
The human rights defender stressed that he has not dealt with Head of the RA National Security Service Artur Vanetsyan’s activity. However, if it turns out that in the previous post he was, for instance, involved in the operations of the wiretapping of civil activists, he will present his position.