1. Freedom of Information

Statement: Changes Threaten Freedom of Information in Armenia

25.02.2004

Proposed amendments to the Armenian Freedom of Information (FOI) law threaten to
undermine the right of access to information just five months after it was
adopted. In a letter to the Armenian Parliament, the Open Society Justice Initiative called for the amendments to be withdrawn and for a renewed
commitment to implementing the existing FOI law.

The amendments put forward by the Ministry of Justice provide greater scope for
exemptions and classification of information by allowing other legislation to
override the FOI law. They also reduce the information state bodies must make
available automatically. In addition, they broaden the law to cover all private
entrepreneurs, placing an undue and inappropriate burden on small businesses.

“The proposed changes pose a serious threat to government transparency and
anti-corruption initiatives in Armenia,” said Helen Darbishire, Senior Program
Manager at the Justice Initiative. “If adopted, the amendments would turn a
decent law in line with international standards into a weak and ineffective
piece of legislation.”

The Armenian Freedom of Information law was adopted in September 2003. Some of
the more effective features of the current law would be lost if these amendments
are introduced. Major changes include:

Exemptions from the principle of public access would no longer be limited to
those defined in the FOI law, but expanded to include those defined in any law.


Current law prohibits refusal of information requests relating to environmental
protection, public security or health. The amendments would allow refusal of
such requests.

The five-day time frame for disclosing information would be increased to 15
days.

The “right to seek and get information from its owner” would be narrowed to a
“right to seek information in a way that is not forbidden by the law” and “to
get [information] from its owner in the ways and cases defined by the law.”

An appropriate transparency obligation on private bodies performing public
functions would be expanded to burden all private entrepreneurs.

State bodies would no longer have to make available significant categories of
information, including the following: budget; environmental impact of
activities; register of public information along with procedures for accessing
it; statistics on information enquiries under the FOI law, including grounds for
refusal to provide information.



2. News from International Organizations

U.S. State Department Issued its Annual Report On Human Rights Situation in
Armenia.

26.02.04

The United States has made yet another negative assessment of human rights
protection in Armenia, singling out its government’s failure to hold democratic
elections, rein in widespread police torture and boost press freedom over the
past year.

“The [Armenian] Government's human rights record remained poor; although there
were some improvements in a few areas, serious problems remained,” the U.S.
State Department said in its annual report on human rights practices around the
world that was released on Wednesday.

The Armenian presidential and parliamentary elections of 2003, tainted with
reports of vote rigging, figure prominently in the report’s 17-page chapter
devoted to Armenia. “International observers found both the presidential and
parliamentary elections during the year to be well below international
standards, with serious irregularities, and opposition supporters were detained
between the two rounds of the presidential elections under provisions of the
Soviet-era Administrative Code,” it says.

Washington was particularly critical of the Armenian authorities’ handling of
the presidential ballot held in two rounds in February and March 2003. The State
Department said at the time that Yerevan “missed an important opportunity to
advance democratization.”

Its latest report reminded of the controversial arrests of hundreds of
opposition supporters during the presidential race. “Most of the individuals
charged for their participation in opposition demonstrations were subjected to
closed administrative hearings with no counsel present that determined the level
of punishment: fines or up to 15 days' detention.”

The rest of the report echoes earlier Armenia-related findings of the U.S.
government. It says that security forces continue to routinely beat pre-trial
detainees and that most such cases “went unreported because of fear of police
retribution.” “The majority of investigations and interview techniques were
based on traditional Soviet methods,” it says.

The conclusion is in tune with periodical reports issued by independent
international watchdogs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch which
see police brutality as the most common form of human rights violation in
Armenia. Both groups have for years pointed to the authorities’ failure to
punish security officials involved in such abuses and enact laws that would
ensure the due process.

“The Criminal Procedure Code does not allow detainees to file a complaint in
court prior to trial to redress abuses committed by the Procurator's Office, the
police, or other security forces during criminal investigations,” the U.S.
report says. “Witnesses have no right to legal counsel during questioning while
in police custody…Failure to testify is a criminal offense, and detainees must
obtain permission from the police or the Procurator's Office to obtain a
forensic medical examination to substantiate a report of torture.”

“Procurators continued to overshadow defense lawyers and judges during trials,”
it adds.

Another major highlight of the report is the state of media freedoms which the
State Department believes have “some limits” in Armenia. “There was no official
censorship, publications presented a variety of views, and the opposition press
regularly criticized government policies and leaders, including the President,
on sensitive issues such as the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and
privatization.”

The document adds, however, that most local journalists continue to practice
“self-censorship” and that the authorities refuse to reopen Armenia’s leading
independent television station A1+ that was controversially forced off the air
nearly two years ago. It notes that most of the other major private networks
“provided heavily biased reporting in favor of incumbent President Kocharian
during the presidential election campaign.”

By Emil Danielyan

http://new.csi.am/eng/index1.php?goto=news&id=1541




3. Anticorruption Initiatives


a. Transparency International against Corruption

27.02.2004

Experts of the Transparency International organization Armenian office held a
seminar on Friday to discuss corruption-related issues. The report preparation
process was financed by British government. Head of the office Amalia Kostanyan
said the organization expects the report to be reflected in Armenian
government’s anticorruption program. Varuzhan Hogtanyan, expert of the
organization said, the biggest problem concerning corruption is impunity. In his
opinion, when good laws remain without putting into practice, cynicism is
flourishing.


http://new.csi.am/eng/index1.php?goto=news&id=1543




b. Joint Project of UNDP and the Government of Armenia Engages Civil Society and
the Mass Media in Anti-Corruption Activities

27.02.2004

Mr. Manouk Topouzian, the Minister-Chief of Staff of the Government of Armenia
and Ms. Lise Grande, UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative,
launched a new project on Building Capacity of the Civil Society to Participate
in Anti-corruption Initiatives.

The goal of the project is to contribute to anti-corruption initiatives and
improve democratic governance by building public awareness and strengthening the
capacity of civil society to participate in the implementation of the
Government's Anti-Corruption Strategy Paper.

Under the auspices of this project: i) a comprehensive anti-corruption public
awareness campaign will be launched; ii) a methodology for monitoring
anti-corruption initiatives will be developed; and iii) a regional network of
trained civic groups will be established to track progress in fighting
corruption in the education and health sectors. The project will last ten months
and be implemented at both central and regional levels. UNDP will partner with a
number of local and international organizations including the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

In August 2003, the Government adopted the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
(PRSP). A main priority in the PRSP is improving the effectiveness and
transparency of governing structures. The PRSP recognises that the development
and consistent implementation of anti-corruption policies will have a
significant impact on reducing inequality and poverty in Armenia.

In December 2003, the Government adopted a National Strategy on Anti-Corruption
including new institutional and governance reforms aimed at reducing
administrative gaps and ensuring accountability and transparency during
policy-making. According to Ms. Grande, "an important prerequisite for the
successful implementation of the National Strategy on Anti-Corruption is the
creation of an efficient mechanism for all stakeholders to participate in the
Strategy's implementation. Civil society and the mass media must play a central
role in tracking progress."

In January 2004, the Government officially initiated the process of acceding to
the United Nations Convention against Corruption.



4. Elections

European Bodies Propose Electoral Reform in Armenia

24.02.04

Europe’s two leading democracy watchdogs that have harshly criticized last
year’s presidential and parliamentary elections in Armenia circulated on Tuesday
a long list of legal amendments which they believe could prevent a repeat of
“widespread electoral violations.”

The measures, jointly proposed by experts from the Council of Europe and the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, would, among other things,
weaken the Armenian authorities’ overwhelming control of electoral bodies,
require the latter to provide more detailed vote tallies and assign serial
numbers to all ballots.

They will be discussed at a three-day seminar which began its work in Yerevan on
Tuesday. Senior government officials and representatives of Armenia’s main
political groups are among its participants. Deputy parliament speaker Vahan
Hovannisian assured them that the National Assembly will consider the
recommendations.

The authorities, under domestic and international fire for their controversial
handling of the 2003 polls, have pledged to address the criticism by enacting
relevant amendments by the end of this year. The opposition shrugs off the
pledge, however, saying that clean elections are impossible as long as they are
in power.

The authors of the recommendations, representing the Council’s so-called Venice
Commission and the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights,
admit that Armenia’s existing Electoral Code “constitutes in general the basis
for the conduct of democratic elections” and was seriously violated in 2003. But
they say further legal improvements would complicate electoral fraud.

Ruzanna Khachatrian



5. Freedom of Association. Freedom of Expression.

Opposition members were detained and after few days released by police


25.02.2004

Three members of the opposition Hanrapetutyun (Republic) party arrested on
Tuesday were reportedly released but another one remained on the run on
Wednesday as the Armenian police continued what they describe as a crackdown on
illegal arms possession.

A party leader, Albert Bazeyan, told RFE/RL that the three residents of Yerevan
were set free early in the morning only to have their apartments again searched
by law-enforcement officials. He said similar searches were already conducted
during their brief detention, which is seen by Hanrapetutyun as part of
government efforts to forestall renewed opposition protests against President
Robert Kocharian’s rule.

Hanrapetutyun said more than two dozen of its activists around the country have
been summoned to police stations for questioning in recent days and warned
against assisting in the ongoing opposition efforts to mobilize public support
for a campaign of anti-government demonstrations expected this spring. Similar
claims have been made by another influential opposition group, the People’s
Party (HZhK) of Stepan Demirchian. The HZhK and Hanrapetutyun are leading
members of Armenia’s largest opposition alliance called Artarutyun (Justice).

The police refrain from commenting on the opposition allegations, saying only
that they are looking for illegally kept weapon and ammunition and have already
found some quantities of them. The only firearm that they claim to have
confiscated so far is an old assault rifle used by the German army in the Second
World War. A statement issued by the national Police Service late on Tuesday
also listed about three hundreds bullets, 19 unspecified “detonators” and five
“home-made knives.”

All of this was allegedly found in premises owned by four individuals. Two of
them are kept in custody and will likely be charged with illegal arms
possession. Hanrapetutyun leaders say those men have no links to their party.


Another suspect, Romik Mkhitarian, heads the Hanrapetutyun branch in Yerevan’s
southern Shengavit district. Mkhitarian refused to allow police officers to
search his home and is now said to be in hiding. The police statement said that
“measures” are being taken to track down and question him.

By Shakeh Avoyan

http://new.csi.am/eng/index1.php?goto=news&id=1539

http://new.csi.am/eng/index1.php?goto=news&id=1540

6. Other Events

Books on Mass Media Activities Published in Armenia

27.02.04

The books "Mass media in the documents of the Council of Europe" and "New Times"
have been published in Armenia with the assistance of the Institute of Open
Society. Speaking at the presentation of the books, President of the Yerevan
Press Club Boris Navasardian reported that the book "Mass media in the documents
of the Council of Europe" contains the CE documents regulating the mass media
sphere. He pointed out that not only journalists, but also political figures
showed much interest in the book.

http://new.csi.am/eng/index1.php?goto=news&id=1546