On May 25, 2010 the Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia Armen Harutyunyan presented an Ad-hoc Public Report on the «The Right to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly in the Republic of Armenia».

The Report is  a comprehensive analyses of the issues connected with the  legal regulation of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly in the Republic of Armenia,  law enforcement practices and its judicial protection.

The situation with the right of freedom of assembly in the Republic of Armenian in its current state does not correspond to the international standards in a number of respects. Despite the fact that the RA Law «On conducting meetings, assemblies, rallies and demonstrations» reflects the main content of the constitutional right to assembly, the uncertain provisions allowing diverse interpretations and sometimes unclear definitions are the reasons leading to contradictory law enforcement practices. Particularly, they are related to the issues of place and time of the assembly, conditions of the negotiations between the organizer of the assembly and the authoritative body,  discussions of the notifications presented to conduct the assembly, absence of the presumption in favor of the conduct of the assembly, absence of a clear distinction of the rights and obligations of the organizer and the leader of the assembly as well as the absence of distinct legislative basis for the  restrictions of assemblies, etc.

At the same time mechanisms for the judicial protection of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly are not effective, together with partial or complete violation of main principles of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, such as principles of legality, proportionality, good governance, elimination of discrimination, pro assembly conduct presumption as well as the obligation of the State to protect peaceful assembles.  

In the light of the all above-mentioned issues the importance of the Defender's Ad-hoc Public Report becomes much more obvious. Conclusions and recommendation drawn in the Report can further used as an effective tool for improvement and perfection of the above mentioned  field.