Armenia’s Ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan presented an Ad-hoc Public Report on the Right to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly in the Republic of Armenia.
The situation with the right of freedom of assembly in the Republic of Armenia in its current state does not correspond to the international standards in a number of respects, Harutyunyan told journalists during the report’s presentation.
According to him, mass events basically aim to freely express and disseminate opinion, express public attitude, as well as to draw the authorities’ attention to the public’s problems. “These conditions are interrelated to assembly’s place and time, the change of which makes the event’s organization senseless, limits is publicity, efficiency and indirectly restricts the right to organization of such event,” the Ombudsman said.
Besides, the law does not contain clear standards for deciding whether the demands of meetings organizers are realistic, as well as norms regulating negotiations between organizers of events and authorities.
The Ombudsman also reminded that the law does not regulate organization of assemblies at night, as well as does not define clearly the conception of event organizer and leader, due to which problems may arise between event participants and law-enforcement bodies.
“The lack of regulation or insufficient regulation of a range of provisions in the law hampers effective fulfillment of the right to organization of peaceful assemblies and, correspondingly, establishment of democracy,” Mr. Harutyunyan said.
He added that Yerevan Mayor adopted over 80 decisions to prohibit organization of meetings in 2008 and this fact is conditioned by imperfection of the country’s legislation.
The Ombudsman noted that his office is drafting a relevant bill concerning the report.
