What is your assessment of the level of protection of human rights in Armenia?

To be honest, my assessment of the level of protection of human rights in Armenia is very low. With the exception of some cases, violations of human rights in Armenia have a systemic nature. In Armenia everything seems to be directed at violating human rights and not at protecting them. It is incomparably difficult to do anything in Armenia trying to keep to the letter of the law than avoiding it. In my opinion, it shows the degree of corruption and the state of human rights in Armenia.   

How aware are people of their rights and how ready are they to protect them?

If we compare the situation now and several years ago, the legal awareness has raised and it has a tendency to grow. However, this is of zero value in a system where it is impossible to apply even for people with the highest level of legal awareness. It is almost impossible to restore one's rights using state mechanisms.    

Including the courts?

Well... we do have some court victories with cases of restoring violated rights. Nevertheless, it does not become a precedent, and in a similar situation if there is no one following, if there is no control, an arbitrary decision may be adopted in a most illegitimate way.   

What are you working at and what projects are you implementing currently?

Along with the awareness project at present we are implementing a project of protecting labor rights in regions of Vayots Dzor, Syunik (entirely) and Tavush (in Berd region only). The province of Syunik has been chosen because there are large enterprises, in particular, mining enterprises functioning there. In Berd too we try to protect the rights of the employees.

We provide free legal counseling, we have 6 civil centers in the 3 provinces - one is in Berd, the other two are opened with the assistance of Yerevan office of Oxfam (UK). It is through these centers that we provide free legal counseling. Visits are organized to these centers and if there are violations of rights and there is a possibility to restore the violated rights, we take the matter to court. We have both won and lost cases. We had cases when the law was on our side, we had to obviously win them but we lost.    

Which rights are violated in Armenia more often?

Economic and labor laws are the most often violated ones in the Republic of Armenia. The property law too is violated quite often when some oligarch covets some land and does his best to appropriate it, to snatch it from some citizen.

The most widespread violations in the field of labor law are employing people without a labor contract, not paying the salary, arbitrary dismissal, making no final calculation after dismissal, paying no holiday or disability pay etc.

The thing is that while the person works and has no problems, he seems to be in solidarity with the employer. When the employer fires him, only then he realizes he doesn't have even the simplest thing - a labor contract. And it is the basis for starting a case and winning it. It is due acute shortage of jobs, lack of qualified labor and arbitrariness of employers. Since the choice is big, the employers get rid of those who try to make legitimate demands. They are not happy with such employees, since most enterprises try to show minimum documented employees because they have to provide minimum salaries and make social payments to the budget, which they tend to avoid. And here the State Labor Inspection, an agency with sufficient authorities, has a lot to do. However, not always it manages to protect employees' interests. If encountered by some oligarch or high ranking official, they are unable to change anything even in the framework of their authorities. 

You have always been involved in refugees' problems. What problems do you implement for this group of beneficiaries?              

The communities populated with refugees are big communities, and we implement different micro-projects with the support of different donors. As mediators, we support initiative groups of those communities in starting some kind of entrepreneurship with grants - bee farming, poultry farming or sheep breeding. The initiative groups formed voluntarily conduct need revelation, self-organize and make a decision, for instance, to breed chicken. The original donor helps to purchase incubators, chickens, fodder and they support the growth of the enterprise. There are farms that already sell chickens, eggs and solve social problems. We have helped some to install fodder mills and use all the fodder. If formerly 30 per cent of the fodder was thrown away, now all 100 percent is used. With our support in the last 3 years some 35 families in the provinces of Vayots Dzor and Syunik started bee farming.   

Trade unions have an important role in protecting rights of employees. What is the situation in Armenia in this field? Do these structures fulfill their mission? 

There are trade unions that seem to work well but, actually, they are adjuncts of the administration and follow instructions of owners or directors of the enterprise. We help big enterprises to create their own trade unions. During the meetings and discussions we try to explain to these people that being independent is in their own interest. On the other hand, they argue that the difficult economic situation does not allow them to be independent. But I am sure that this is a process that though slowly but still goes ahead. Simply it is something that requires devotion, and there are so few such people in our society that are able to form a civil society. Servility, cowardness, conformity result in indifference. The worst is indifference towards the bad. We try to eliminate indifference, sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail; more often we fail. There is lack for full-fledged citizens. This is our biggest and the most vulnerable problem.

Interview by Mary Alexanyan. 

Source: www.hra.am