Ombudsman Karen Andreasyan applied to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia to challenge the constitutionality of several provisions of the Civil Procedure Code regarding the rights of persons with mental disabilities. On April 7, 2015 the Constitutional Court recognized one of the disputable provisions unconstitutional and void, as well as provided Court’s legal position on the enforcement of the other one.

Before the adoption of the mentioned decision, while examining the issue of the citizen’s legal capacity, the latter could have been invited to the court hearing if his/her health condition allowed that. That is to say, even if the person’s health condition allowed his/her participation in the court hearing, the court had a discretion over inviting the person to the hearing. Besides that, according to the Code, only person’s guardian, family member or the management of the psychiatric institution had the right to apply to the court in order to restore person’s legal capacity, whereas the person incapacitated upon the court decision could not (personally, or through a selected representative by him/her) apply to the court to restore his or her legal capacity.

According to the Ombudsman, such regulations restrict the rights of a person to court protection, fair trial, as well as the fundamental principles of equality of arms and adversary proceeding.

The Constitutional Court has ruled that the provision stipulated in the Article 173 of the Code is unconstitutional and void. Hereinafter, the incapacitated person may file a lawsuit to the court personally or through a representative selected by him/her with a claim to restore his/her legal capacity. The Court has also provided its legal position regarding the enforcement of the provision of the Article 171 mentioned above. Specifically, the latter shall be interpreted and enforced in the following way: a person shall not be invited to court hearing exclusively in the case his/her health condition does not allow it.

Ombudsman belives that such decision of the Constitutional Court would promote more effective protection of the rights of persons with mental disabilities.

Office of the Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia