According
to the report of the “Military Court Proceedings Centre”, the recommendations
of the Committee on Prevention of Torture (CPT) were ignored by Armenia numerous
times. The CPT members visited Armenia for five times, and had to repeat four
of their recommendations for three times, and 19 recommendations were reminded
twice.

These data were given by human rights defender, a
deputy of the National Assembly Edmon  Maroukyan, who presented his research “Report on
the Monitoring Results on Recommendations of the European Committee on
Prevention of Torture to the Republic of Armenia.”

The report states that CPT outlined 592 issues in
Armenia. 172 recommendations were presented to the state bodies, of which 23
were repeated through years.

For instance, the conditions at the Temporary
Detention Centre of the Department of Interior Affairs of Yerevan City remained
the same, i.e. bad, since 2002. This is the reason for the Committee to repeat
its recommendations made in 2002, particularly, on issues regarding the
Centre’s territory, lighting, air circulation, hygiene, and renovation.
Similarly, the Committee points out the overcrowded criminal executive
institution of Noubarashen, rights of the inmates sentenced to life
imprisonment, and other.

The
RA government has not responded on 12 recommendations at all, on 10 recommendations
the response was that they were not referred to the mentioned state bodies, on
26 recommendations the answer was that at this stage the government could not improve
the situation, and that there were financial issues concerning another 4
recommendations.

“We
came up with recommendations in respect to programs that the government had promised
to implement but which have not been called to life since that. The CPT report outlines
specific issues, which need a response, but our government in case of not
having answer to a question, just skips it and moves to another one,” said Edmon Maroukyan.

Mr. Maroukyan commented that the state had promised
to present a comprehensive program on psychic health, to prepare booklets in
Russian and English explaining rights and responsibilities of persons detained
by police, to introduce electronic system on protocol proceeding, which should
make visible the whereabouts of persons detained by policeand thus eliminate
the current practice in RA police, when sometimes it is hard to find out
location of detained persons.

Maroukyan
expressed his concern that “all this was promisedand, as our survey results
demonstrate, not implemented, and in some instances no intention to improve the
situation was observed.”

He
outlined that Guidelines on Anticorruption Behavior of RA Police were to be developed,
that internal investigation on cases of applied force to detainees were to be carried
out, that internal regulations for closed institutions were not to be just of
formal character, and that mirrored rooms allowing video recording were to be
established in the RA Police investigation departments.

The
report indicated failed activities which had to be implemented in psychiatric
hospitals, including the basic issues of sufficient staffing and educational
programs for patients and attending personnel.

Maroukyan noticed that the state had not fulfilled
its responsibility to carry out proper investigation on cases of suicides or
deaths in closed institutions.

“Self-damage or hanging are applied by mostly those
people who are dissatisfied with investigation on their criminal cases, unjust
court decisions and issues related to preliminary investigation. The state provides
with a list of special illnesses, which can serve as basis for release of
detainees, but this provision is not observed, and here again cases of deaths
and suicides are registered,” said Maroukyan.

Artur Sakunts, Head of Helsinki
Citizens Assembly Vanadzor Office, observed that the death rate in psychiatric
hospitals is high: during last five years there were more than 230 death
incidents, on which no criminal case was opened, and criminal cases initiated
regarding 3 or 4 incidents were later dropped on the basis of lack of evidence.

“In most cases they write that people died as a
result of heart attack or some other illness, but we cannot confirm whether the
deaths were caused by improper medical treatment or not. The CPT always raises
the question of proper investigation, namely, that onevery death case a
comprehensive investigation should be initiated and the state should publish
its results. So far, if there is no complaint from relatives, the criminal
cases on suicides and deaths are just suspended,” said Sakunts.

Edmon Maroukyan, human rights
defender and to become tomorrow deputy of RA National Assembly, offered that Artur Sakunts prepare a legislative
draft, which would allow human rights organizations to represent rights of the
people who have died or people with limited capacities kept in closed
institutions.

Maroukyan called on all civil society
organizations to submit their concerns to him so he raises them at the National
Assembly after he receives his mandate on 30 May.