Interview with Artak Kirakosyan, Chairman of the Board
of the Civil Society Institute NGO

In your opinion, how
does the year 2013 stand out in relation to human rights protection and
implementation?

I think nothing revolutionary happened last year. The
behavior of police hasn’t change in essence, perhaps during demonstrations police
more or less showed professionalism, but taken as a whole its methods and work
style remained the same.   

There were a lot of discussions around anti-discrimination
law, but after all, it’s still unclear whether the draft law would bring any
outcome or not.

Great and pointless discussions took place around the
law on gender equality, like what the notion of “gender” means, whether it
exists or not etc., which are absurd from both scientific and social points of
view. It’s like to discuss whether the notion of “sex” exists or not.

Unfortunately, there have been cases which also
happened before and give rise to concerns. Those are instances of violence
against the activists protesting against the rise in public transport fares and
7 young men who had personal relationship with them, happened if I am not
mistaken in August-September. We expressed our worries by issuing a statement
and requesting a prompt and effective investigation and suppression of such
malpractice, however the organizers and perpetrators of the beatings were not identified
and police failed to inform the public about the outcomes of the investigation.

Our essential problem and this is proven by the numerous
demonstrations and rallies that in Armenia decisions are not made transparently,
from the increase in transportation fares to the intent to join the Customs
Union. It has become obvious that in principle
in our country there are no “civilized” mechanisms of decision making, and this
is against the background of the advancement, one can say, of the freedom of
speech. This brings us to the reality when people are aware about current
problems, have willingness to influence and participate in their resolution,
but have no leverage to make their voices be heard. I think this is the biggest
challenge for democracy in Armenia, which moved from 2013 to 2014. Let’s see whether
there will be any progress this year or not.

In your opinion, what
are the most significant events or decisions of 2013 in the field of human
rights?

We have a new young Prosecutor General. Time will tell
how efficient his work will be. To speak the truth, everyone got tired and no
one expected anything positive from his predecessor. Certain changes in
personnel took place in the Office of the Prosecutor General, a joint
investigation body has been created, but the results of these decisions are yet
to be seen in 2014.

There were also two elections in 2013, the
Presidential election and Yerevan City Council election. Those can be compared
with the previously held elections so as to find bad and good sides; however
their main mission, to form the government through elections, remained
incomplete, since elections in our country are still а mechanism of reproduction of the current authorities. 2013
elections haven’t changed much in the distrust existing in the society towards elections.

2013 got rid of people, the society has really got
tired of. One of them is the Governor of Syunik region, Suren Khachatryan, the
other, as it was already mentioned, is the ex-Prosecutor General Aghvan
Hovsepyan, but, again, we cannot speak of any essential positive changes yet.

It looks like Special Investigation Service after
getting a new Head started to act more active than before, but there is no
visible result yet.

The resolution of the issues existing in the penal
system has been delayed. In 2013 we still didn’t acquire a probation system. The
amnesty declared in connection with Armenia's Independence Day has temporary
resolved the problem of overcrowded prisons.

To sum up, I can say, that in 2013 we had no effectively
functioning public system which can be regarded as achievement.

If compared with
previous years what specialized areas of human rights have advanced?

I think the right to freedom of speech has significantly
strengthened, which first and foremost is conditioned by wide spread of the Internet.
In fact, today everyone has internet access in Armenia. I don’t think that it
is possible if someone obtains a piece of information and is not able to spread
it, make it known to society. In this respect there are no restrictions.

A negative development in the field of women rights is
the rejection of the draft law on domestic violence, around which a great
discussion unfolded. However, the discussions shifted to the issues which have
nothing to do with the draft law and are not important for the society whereas in
this entire buzz truly burning issues got lost and were paid no attention.

What are the changes in
the field of fair trial?

In this respect we had two quite illustrative cases,
which were also highly publicized. One of them is the well-known “Haystack”
case, which is important because it illustrated that our system of justice from
investigative agencies to court is not functioning properly. It was obvious in
this case that there were not even traces of a crime, but people were detained
for quite a long time and eventually were found guilty.

As to the second case, since last year we have had an
instance when policemen were convicted of committing a crime of torture which gives
us hope that law-enforcing bodies are not above law in Armenia. I am talking
about the case of two officers of the criminal investigation department who tortured Robert Hovsepyan. But
what happened in the end? Тhe
amnesty applied to conceal somehow the shameful “Haystack” case and to release innocent
people included also the torturers, who were also set free. We published an
open letter on this issue, because including perpetrators of torture in amnesty
is not allowed by international practice.

In the field of justice, particularly in the judicial
system the issues are those which were raised in the Ombudsman’s report. They exist
and there are no solutions. This is linked to the oligarchical system and merger
of governmental structures and business. This is the underlying cause of the
fact that our judicial system is not independent and fully functional. However,
it cannot be said that the administration of justice is entirely lacking in
Armenia. There is no need to run to an extreme.

What are the issues
NGOs have to focus on in 2014?

Not only NGOs but also journalists and authorities
have to focus on a number of issues. First and foremost, as it was mentioned,
there is a problem of public participation in decision-making, which is present
on both municipal and national levels. If a forum, bringing society and
authorities into dialogue, is not created, then demonstrations and street
actions will go on and eventually end up with clashes.

The second important issue, which has to be on the
agenda of human rights organizations, is the Genocide issue. 2015 is the year
of the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and the issue must
be a constant focal point of human rights organizations from the legal
recognition point of view as well as, and this is the most important aspect, as
a crime against humanity, so as to prevent such crimes from happening again.

It is a shame that Armenia hasn’t ratified the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court, which is the most important
mechanism which establishes criminal responsibility for those responsible for
such crimes. I think we have to act in this respect, there is a state
commission coordinating of the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide, but there is also the need to engage society to help in
resolving this issue.

We have no elections in 2014 and 2015, which is a good
opportunity to spend time on real improvements on this field.

The shortcomings of the judicial system are connected to
the other issues of the society. The Prosecutor General has to spend effort to give
a good account of himself, because the system we have today does not satisfy
the needs of society.

I think the discussions around gender issues will calm
down and such nonsense debates will be replaced by more fruitful discussions.
Let’s hope that real problems we have, like domestic violence, gender
discrimination, homosexual intolerance, will not be overly politicized and will
be resolved without any empty rhetoric.

Of course there are serious problems in army. In this
respect the involvement of NGOs and society in general in the formation of the
army is very important so as to restore the trust towards it.

How was 2013 for CSI?
What are the planned activities for 2014?

For me 2013 is important and special first and
foremost because of the creation with CSI’s support of the “Ceasefire: the pain
of human loss” organization of mothers and relatives of those killed as a result of ceasefire violations on
the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. To date the organization has more than 30
members, people to whom our society is in debt.

In
the field of juvenile justice we introduced the basics of mediation system. We
held a series of trainings on mediation for staff members of  “Abovyan” Penitentiary Institution and police
officers dealing with juvenile cases. They were inspired by the trainings and
also expressed the opinion that it is impossible to work with juveniles
exclusively from the penal code perspective. By acting like this we do not
prevent crimes from happening but also ruin lives.

In
2013 in Turkey Turkish NGOs for the first time joined us in a statement, which
was reinforced by the International Federation for Human Rights Resolution and
made two distinct claims. First one is it the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide and the second one to open border with Armenia without any conditions.
In my opinion this can be considered as a groundbreaking step, since right
emphases are clearly made. 

Election
monitoring missions were also implemented which, as I always stress, are more
of a mission to prevent violations.

In
2014 CSI will continue its work on implementation of probation system, juvenile
justice, the institute of mediation, peace building, legal and social support
of the families suffered from the ceasefire violations and as well as other
issues. We will also continue to focus on the issue of recognition and
condemnation of the Armenian genocide as well as prevention of such crimes from
happening in the future. In this respect a huge work needs to be done also with
our Turkish partners.

We
also have an issue of suppression of the violence in society, particularly
among juveniles in schools and special schools. 

Interview by Mariam Sargsyan