ARMENIA HAS NO PROBLEMS WITH MEETING COMMITMENTS TO CE, HEAD OF ARMENIAN DELEGATION IN PACE CONSIDERS

The issue of fulfilling the commitments undertaken by Armenia at the entry to CE will be discussed at the coming session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to be held January 2004. According to head of the Armenian delegation in PACE, chairman of the RA National Assembly Commission on Foreign Relations Armen Rustamian, Armenia has no serious problems connected with meeting these commitments. In his words, a considerable step toward the adoption of the bill on alternative military service, which also includes CE’s proposes, has been already taken. The bill on Ombudsman is as well being discussed with considering the offers by the European experts. As for the constitutional changes, the referendum on which the PACE rapporteurs suggest to hold in the first half of 2005, so, in A. Rustamian’s words, the terms fixed are unreal from the aspect of realization of the process. As regards the CE’s requirement on registration of Jehovah witnesses, Armenia holds the opinion that they can be only registered in case their regulations accord with the RA legislation.