Summarizing 2011 Human rights defender Karen Andreasyan announced that the most serious and the most important system problem is the lack of fair trials and we have this problem in the field of human rights since the independence of Armenia.

Today, RA President Serzh Sargsyan held a conference on the judicial system problems. "Unfortunately, I have to mention that now the results are not satisfactory, and we have not noted any radical change in this field", told President Sargsyan. During the conference the president suggested to launch official investigation against those investigators, judges, prosecutors who made or confirmed illegal decisions in order to solve the problem of their disciplinary responsibility, and to send the corresponding materials to the RA Special Investigation Service in case of discovering criminal crimes.  Serzh Sargsyan emphasized the importance of a joint and non-discriminatory approach to the implementation of the proceedings.

We have to notice that HR Defender suggested to bring 3 judges to disciplinary responsibility, but it did not proceed. "That was my greatest disappointment of 2011", said Andreasyan and called the political forces not only to criticize the current situation of the judicial force, but to present a realistic programs of establishing a fair court.    

The president of "Civil Society Institute" NGO Arman Danielyan also thinks that there have been no significant improvements and shifts in the field of the right to fair trial.

He mentions that: "The government developed a conception of criminal procedure, but there has been no practical change this year".

The organization observes the preliminary investigation and the trial of a number of cases.  According to Mr. Danielyan such cases are chosen, which are obvious cases of violation of human rights. "Those are the cases that do not have awful outcomes, but they are dangerous in sense of setting a precedent", says CSI president.

The human rights activist considers the verdict against Witness of Jehovah Andranik Makvetsyan, according to which the member of the religious organization was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment, such a case.

 "We are concerned with the verdict of the court, because it sets a dangerous precedent, that any attempt of preaching by someone, who is not a representative of apostolic church can cause a criminal liability", comments Arman Danielyan.

There is a database in www.hra.am, where you can find complete information about the cases that are in the focus of CSI. "We try to elucidate the whole process consistently, because in many cases they engage themselves in a case, but later on forget about it. For instance, Levon Gulyan's case can serve as a proof, it is already 4 years that we are engaged in it.", mentioned CSI president.

Many of the RA citizens apply to the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter ECHR) having exhausted all of the Court instances in Armenia. "Civil Society Institute" NGO appealed to European Court 9 times. According to the data of the ECHR website the European court made 5 decisions against Republic of Armenia.

 "The right to fair trial is the most important right, I can even say the right of rights, because the main means of defending violated rights is the court. If we do not have a fair and independent judicial system, we cannot defend our violated rights", thinks Arman Danielyan

Mary Alexanyan

Source- www.hra.am