1. Violation of Journalists' Rights

Armenian Journalist Beaten For Filming Luxury Villas

[24.08.2004]

An Armenian photojournalist was beaten up Tuesday for taking pictures of plush
mansions apparently belonging to a high-level police official and other
government-connected individuals, the latest in a series of violent attacks on
representatives of the country’s media.

Mkhitar Khachatrian of the Photolur agency was attacked in Tsaghkadzor, a resort
town in central Armenia where he was on assignment together with Anna Israelian,
a correspondent for the independent daily “Aravot.” Israelian was preparing an
article about the damage to local mountainous forests caused by housing
construction in recent years.

The two reporters told RFE/RL that they were surveying an expensive residential
area when a man guarding one of its houses, reputedly owned by Armen Yeritsian,
deputy chief of the national police, told Khachatrian to stop taking pictures. 

Armenian law-enforcement authorities said on Thursday they have detained the
man who they believe attacked a photojournalists.

In a brief statement, the Office of Prosecutor-General said detained and
questioned on Wednesday “the individual who committed the crime.” He was
identified as Gagik Stepanian. The statement said Stepanian will be charged with
“hooliganism” and obstruction of journalists’ work. But it did not specify
whether he was released after the interrogation or will be kept in custody
pending trial.

In a show of defiance and professional solidarity, dozens of journalists
descended on the resort town of Tsaghkadzor Saturday to jointly photograph local
plush villas -- an activity that got two of their colleagues in trouble earlier
in the week.

On August 27 the International Press Institute forwards the open letter to the president of RA Robert Kocharyan. In the letter IPI strongly condemns the attack on Mkhitar Khachatrian. IPI urges President to authorize an immediate and thorough investigation into the incident and to do everything in his power to create an environment in Armenia that allows journalists to practice their profession without fear of harassment or intimidation.


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2. Legislative reforms

Revised Draft Amendments to RA Constitution Direct Way To Dictatorship:
Shavarsh Kocharyan

[28.08.2004]

Revised draft amendments to the RA Constitution submitted to a nation-wide
referendum are a direct way to dictatorship, the Parliament member of the
opposition bloc "Justice", Chairman of the National-Democratic Party (NDP)
Shavarsh Kocharyan told a press conference.

According to him, the draft should be compared not even with the current
Constitution, but with the document that was submitted to a nation-wide
referendum on May 25, 2003, and was voted down. The new draft has 20 distinctive
features, four of them being merits and 16 demerits, Sh. Kocharyan said.
According to him, "among the merits are: the accused right to interrogation in
the presence of a lawyer, the abolition of the right to tapping and control of
people's private correspondence, as well as the stipulation of the right of the
RA National Assembly to Statements." On the other hand, "the demerits are:
arbitrary restriction of citizens' rights and freedoms, legal stipulation of
dependence of the entire judicial system of one person - the President,
permission to Parliament members to run business, the President's right to
dissolve the Parliament if it does not approve the Government proposed by the
President, etc." The goal of the draft is maximal enlargement of the President's
power, which are excessive as it is and further dictatorship, the
parliamentarian said.

The did not rule out the possibility of Robert Kocharian's running for the third
presidency term. "Robert Kocharian said that he did not wish to run for the
third term, but as his powers expire, a political force, representatives of the
intelligentsia and public will be found that will persuade him into continuing
as President. This is the real goal of the draft amendments that is being
indirectly proposed," Sh. Kocharyan said. He stressed that the opposition's
return to Parliament would only means "playing up to" this process. Despite the
journalists' numerous questions, the parliamentarian avoided answering the
question concerning the opposition's further actions in this situation. However,
Sh. Kocharyan is well aware of what the people must do, namely, "struggle, while
we will lead this struggle.


http://new.csi.am/eng/index1.php?goto=news&id=1803

3. Freedom of Information

Journalists Keep Fighting For Public Information

[04.08.2004]

On August 10, 2004 the Administrative Court of Appeals of Armenia will begin
reexamination of the suit brought by the Association of Investigative
Journalists NGO against the Yerevan Mayor's Office.We remind you that last
October, the association's chairman, Edik Baghdasaryan, requested permission
from Mayor Yervand Zakharyan to see the decisions regarding land allocations in
the public park surrounding Yerevan's Opera House taken from 1997 to 2003 by
former mayors of Yerevan. "You must specify the exact kind of information you
intend to receive from the Yerevan Mayor's Office," was the mayor's chief of
staff Samvel Koshetsyan's reply to the request. The association then appealed to
President Robert Kocharyan, who forwarded the letter to the mayor's office.
Again, the association was turned down by the mayor's chief of staff. Unable to
obtain the necessary information as provided by law, the Association of
Investigative Journalists was forced to appeal to the court in the hope that it
would oblige Mayor Zakharyan to fulfill his duty.

On June 21, 2004 , Judge Gayane Karakhanyan of the Court of First Instance of
the Kentron and Nork-Marash Communities of Yerevan dismissed the complaint of
the Association without substantiation.

After the verdict, Edik Baghdasaryan appealed to the Chairman of the Justice
Council, President Kocharyan, to institute disciplinary proceedings against
Judge Karakhanyan for displaying clear bias and unlawfulness while examining the
case. His letter to the Justice Council stated: "We believed that after the
manifestation of the same attitude of disrespect for the law by the Yerevan
Mayor's Office in court, the court would have to oblige them to abide by the
law. But Judge Gayane Karakhanyan, acting as if she were legal adviser to the
Mayor's Office, and through her verdict by which she denied us information which
contained no secret, once again proved her clear bias in favor of the Mayor's
Office during the court proceedings. This was the reason why Gayane Karakhanyan
found it difficult to mention in the substantiative part of her verdict the
circumstances, arguments for refusing to admit certain evidence, or laws and
legal acts by which the court was guided while arriving at the verdict. In the
'substantiation' of the verdict, the information required by the law is lacking.
Thus the Judge has violated the Article 132 of the Administrative Code of
Armenia."

President Kocharyan was also provided with other pieces of information: While in
deliberation, the judge discussed the details of the case in progress over the
telephone (journalists present in the hallways of the court can attest to this).
The respondent's representative, Karine Danielyan, was allowed to freely go in
and out of the judge's chambers during and after the proceedings. These facts
show that the judge neglected the elementary rules of an unbiased court.

Following the verdict of the Court of First Instance, the Association of
Investigative Journalists also wrote to the chairman of the newly-created
Council on the Fight Against Corruption, Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan,
asking him for support in obtaining public information. In response, we received
a letter from Minister-Government Chief of Staff, Manuk Topuzyan, which read in
part, "There is a court verdict which has come into force regarding the matter
in question, and thus the government's staff has no right to discuss the issue."
It defies logic that although our letter was addressed to the Council on
Corruption, it was handled by Topuzyan, from the Government.

In order to check the willingness of the Mayor's Office to provide journalists
with public information following this verdict, the association once again sent
a letter of request to the Mayor's Office. This time we clearly mentioned the
names of all the cafés located in the public park surrounding Yerevan 's Opera
House, as the mayor's representatives had demanded during the court sessions.
And again the Yerevan Mayor turned down the organization's request to see the
decisions regarding land allocations taken by his predecessors.

Liana Sayadyan


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4. Freedom of conscience

ARMENIA: Imprisonment, no registration, and no identity documents for JW's


[04.08.2004]

Armenia continues to jail Jehovah's Witness conscientious objectors, in clear
breach of its Council of Europe and OSCE commitments, although human rights
ombudsman Larisa Alaverdyan has denied to Forum 18 News Service that the
commitments have been broken. The head of the state religious affairs
department, Hranush Kharatyan, has rejected the right upheld in international
human rights agreements of religious believers to spread their beliefs by
peaceful means. An alternative service law is theoretically in force, but in
practice cannot yet be applied. Jehovah's Witnesses see the alternative service
terms as excessive punishment for their refusal to do military service, and are
also being denied identity documents – necessary eg. for employment or marriage
- on completing jail terms. Also, for the twelfth time since 1995, Jehovah's
Witneses have been denied state registration. Stefan Buchmayer, the OSCE's
Yerevan human rights officer, told Forum 18 that "one cannot find real legal
justification for the refusal."

Armenia's Jehovah's Witness community has just received its twelfth registration
denial since 1995, with fourteen members in prison for refusing military service
on religious grounds and a further eleven expecting to be tried for refusing the
lengthy and harsh alternative service, the terms of which they see as a
punishment for refusing military service. Problems for those completing prison
terms also seem to be mounting. Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18 News Service
that seventeen recently freed young men are being refused identity documents
(internal passports) because they are not registered with the military
commissariat, while a further seven who have identity documents are being
refused residency registration, a requirement in Armenia.

Officials blame the Jehovah's Witnesses for allegedly failing to try to resolve
these problems with the government. "If those being released are not getting
passports they have put themselves in that situation," the human rights
ombudsman Larisa Alaverdyan told Forum 18 from the capital Yerevan on 2 August.
Hranush Kharatyan, head of the government's religious affairs department, told
Forum 18 the same day that the Jehovah's Witnesses had failed to respond to her
invitations to discuss how to amend their statute to get registration.

Fifteen Jehovah's Witnesses from various parts of Armenia, who did not possess
an internal passport before they were called up by the army, found that after
their release the local military commissariat refused to issue a certificate to
them until they are registered with the military commissariat, saying they will
not issues the certificates until the Jehovah's Witnesses have served their
time. The passport office will not issue an internal passport without this
certificate. In two further cases, both in central Yerevan, two young men who
had passports before their prison terms were refused them when they asked for
their return. Both have made official complaints to the military commissariat
and the general prosecutor.

"This is a clear violation of their human dignity – they can't do anything
without a passport," Jehovah's Witness lawyer Rustam Khachatryan told Forum 18
from Yerevan on 2 August. "They can't get a job or even marry. But our clever
state does allow people to pay taxes without a passport." He said the military
commissariats are obliged to give out these certificates, but said they
deliberately refuse to give them to Jehovah's Witnesses.

Human rights ombudsman Alaverdyan agreed that the lack of a passport would
create "an awful lot of problems" in Armenia. "People can't leave the country,
can't vote, can't engage in any legal transactions, for example." But she said
the Jehovah's Witnesses have not reported the problem to her and unless they do
she can take no action. Yet she insisted they have to comply with the law and
get the required certificates from the military commissariat like any other
young men.

The Jehovah's Witnesses have been applying for registration as a religious
community since the early 1990s, but their opposition to military service and
what many regard as their aggressive style of proselytism have offended state
officials and the leadership of the dominant Armenian Apostolic Church.

Their latest application was submitted for the required "expert assessment" to
the government religious affairs department on 16 March, three months after a
meeting between state officials and the Jehovah's Witnesses organised by the
Yerevan office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
tried to break the registration deadlock. The religious affairs department
concluded on 24 March that the Jehovah's Witness statute was in accordance with
the law. "We didn't refuse the application – we gave a positive view about
registration," its head, Hranush Kharatyan, told Forum 18.

The Jehovah's Witnesses then submitted the application to the State Registry of
Legal Entities at the Ministry of Justice on 18 May, but it ruled at the end of
June that the statute contradicted the religion law and other laws. Gyurgen
Sarkisyan, who maintains the State Registry, had previously told Forum 18 that
"with an expert conclusion signed by the minister and all documents, they will
be registered" (see F18News 4 February 2004

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=245 ). Sarkisyan's phone was
not being answered when Forum 18 tried to speak to him on 2 August.

Despite having signed the expert assessment approving the application, Kharatyan
of the religious affairs department insisted to Forum 18 that a provision in the
statute describing the Jehovah's Witness practice of door-to-door preaching
violates the law. "This amounts to proselytism and the religion law forbids
this," she declared. "They don't have the right to do this."

She flatly rejected suggestions that in a democratic country, believers of any
faith have the right to spread their beliefs by peaceful means. "We keep getting
a mass of complaints that Jehovah's Witnesses come to people's homes every day
and bombard them with visits," she claimed. Kharatyan also argued that other
provisions of their statute violated the law, although she maintained that the
Jehovah's Witness rejection of military service was not an issue.

Stefan Buchmayer, human rights officer at the OSCE office in Yerevan, reported
that the denial of registration was for "technical reasons" which the Justice
Ministry did not fully explain. "The Jehovah's Witnesses cleared the expert
assessment, so registration with the justice ministry should have been only a
formality," told Forum 18 on 2 August. "One cannot find real legal justification
for the refusal." He said his office has been closely following this issue.
"Unfortunately it has dragged on for many years."

Despite its 2001 commitment to the Council of Europe to free all imprisoned
conscientious objectors and introduce civilian alternative service by January
2004 (see F18News 19 April 2004
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=301 ), the courts have continued
to jail young male Jehovah's Witnesses. As late as 26 May 2004, Ruslan Avetisyan
was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and is now being held in Nubarashen
labour camp, Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18. Also held in the same camp is
Mikael Mkrtchyan, sentenced to two years' imprisonment the same month. The other
twelve prisoners are being held in labour camp in Kosh. Other Jehovah's
Witnesses freed early from prison for good conduct are required to report
regularly to the local police station. On 1 April 2003, a foreign ministry
spokeswoman told Forum 18 that a "full stop" would be put to the imprisonment of
conscientious objectors by the end of 2003 (see F18News 1 April 2003

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=22  ).

Parliament's deputy speaker Tigran Torosyan, who heads the Armenian delegation
to the Council of Europe, told Jehovah's Witness representatives at the Council
of Europe parliamentary assembly in Strasbourg on 22 June that all conscientious
objector prisoners would be freed once the new law on alternative service came
into force on 1 July.

Alaverdyan, who said she has visited 21 imprisoned Jehovah's Witnesses since
taking up the post of ombudsman, claimed there is a "new situation" now that the
alternative service law has taken effect. "The situation has changed
completely," she told Forum 18. However, the fourteen Jehovah's Witnesses remain
in labour camp.

Moreover, Buchmayer of the OSCE pointed out that, although the alternative
service law theoretically came into force on 1 July, in practice it cannot be
applied until promised amendments are approved by parliament. "This will not now
be until parliament's autumn session at the earliest," he told Forum 18, "unless
a special session is called, which is unlikely for such an issue."

Buchmeyer categorically stated that the continued imprisonment of conscientious
objectors violates Armenia's commitments to the Council of Europe and OSCE
commitments, a point rejected by Alaverdyan.

In a new development, eleven Jehovah's Witnesses called up in recent months have
refused the alternative service offered to them, regarding unspecified work –
perhaps cleaning sewerage systems or working in psychiatric homes for three and
a half years under military supervision – as excessive punishment for their
refusal to do military service. "This does not meet European norms," Khachatryan
told Forum 18. The length of the proposed alternative service has been
criticised by the Council of Europe (see F18News 4 February 2004

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=245 ).

Khachatryan noted that Aram Manukyan, a Jehovah's Witness from Yerevan called up
in May, is expected to face trial in the next ten days. He said a further four
are awaiting the opening of criminal cases against them, while six more are
likely to face similar cases in the near future.

Both ombudsman Alaverdyan and Kharatyan of the religious affairs department
seemed annoyed at Forum 18's questions about the Jehovah's Witnesses'
difficulties. "Why don't the Jehovah's Witnesses work with us to resolve their
problems, instead to complaining to people like you?" Alaverdyan asked Forum 18.
"Organisations like yours seem only interested in having continuing cases to
take up rather than resolving them properly." Kharatyan echoed these sentiments.
"Why don't the Jehovah's Witnesses come to us if they want to resolve these
issues?" she exclaimed. "I absolutely don't understand why they go running to
others to complain and don't come to us." She said her office had helped other
religious communities bring their registration applications into line with the
law.

By Felix Corley, Editor, Forum 18 News Service


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5. Elections

Observers Says Elections in NKR On A High Level, Fair And Transparent

[24.08.2004]

Elections ended in Nagorno Karabakh (NKR) with the second round of municipality
elections in a number of communities of the republic on Aug 22. Observers say
they passed on a high level, were fair and transparent, with almost no
violations reported at electoral committees. This testifies effective work at
local electoral committees and high activity of the constituency.

The results of the first stage of elections on Aug 8 indicated that in 22
communities, including Stepanakert, no candidate has won more than half of
votes. According to NKR law on Elections of Local Self Government Bodies,
Central Electoral Committee decided to hold the second stage of elections on Aug
22. Particularly bitter fight was staged among 5 candidates for the mayor of
Stepanakert in the first stage. After announcing the results of the first stage,
it was clear that two candidates, Pavel Najarian and Eduard Aghabekian passed
into the second round.

Interestingly enough, higher voter activity was observed in the second stage of
elections in the capital. According to Central Electoral Committee, votes were
divided in the following way in Stepanakert elections: among 17,039 voters 9427
or 55.3 percent voted for Eduard Aghabekian and 6619 votes went for Pavel
Najarian. According to the acting law, Eduard Aghabekian has become the mayor of
Stepanakert with three years term.


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6. Rights of Disabled Persons

More Than 9000 Out Of 118 Thousand Disabled People Registered In Armenia Are
Children Aged Under 18

[25.08.2004]

At present over 118 thousand disabled people are registered in Armenia. More
than 9000 out of them are children aged under 18. Jemma Baghdasarian, the Chief
of the Department on Disabled and Elderly People Issues of RA Ministry of Labor
and Social Issues, informed Noyan Tapan that the number of disabled people has
been growing in the recent years, thus, this year the number of disabled poople
has increased by 3000 compared with the previous year. According to the chief of
the department, the growth of the number of disabled people is explained by the
fact that under the present social conditions people don't apply for medical
help in time. According to J.Baghdasarian, general diseases become the reason of
disablement in 60%, including oncological, cardiovascular diseases and diseases
of nervous system. Reporting that only 10% of disabled people are provided with
job J.Baghdasarian at the same time mentioned that at present a number of
programs aimed at integration of disabled people to society are being
implemented. For instance, "The Republican Employment Agency" of the Ministry
implements programs of training of disabled people. They will be provided with
job in the future. It was mentioned that more than 20 NGOs take an active part
in the process of integration of disabled people to the society.


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7. Rights of Orphans

Government Approves More Rights For Armenian Orphans

[05.08.2004]

The Armenian government approved on Thursday a set of measures designed to give
children living in state-run orphanages more rights and facilitate their future
integration into the society.

The changes took the form of draft amendments to a law on the social security of
children deprived of parental care. Officials said they will be discussed by
parliament this fall.

“Children living in orphanages must be immune to any kind of violence,
exploitation and sexual abuse,” Ashot Yesayan, the deputy minister of labor and
social affairs, told a news briefing after a weekly cabinet meeting.

Yesayan specified that the amendments spell out 20 requirements that will have
to be met by all orphanage administrations. He said those include giving the
orphans the right to choose their clothes, make unrestricted phone calls to
their friends and relatives and have some “pocket money.”

“Any child must have a certain sum at their disposal depending on their age,” he
added.

The proposed changes are also meant to tackle the equally serious problem of
those orphans who have nowhere to live, work or study after coming of age. Other
officials from the Social Affairs Ministry have said that many of them have to
stay in the orphanages for that reason.

Under one of the draft amendments to the law every homeless person who has left
an orphanage since 1992 must be provided with free housing by the government.
Yesayan put their number at 180, saying that 55 of them were given apartments in
Yerevan and elsewhere in Armenia last year and 75 others will get them this
year. The provision of housing will be complete by the end of 2005, he said.

The government decision comes after a major toughening earlier this year of
official rules for the adoption of Armenian children by foreign nationals. In
February ministers imposed additional restrictions on the practice in an
apparent reaction to media reports suggesting widespread corruption among
government officials handling the process.

In another move aimed reducing foreign adoptions which hit a record-high number
of 76 in 2003, the government approved a scheme offering local families
financial incentives to take in and raise orphans.

According to government figures, there are about 600 such children in Armenia --
a relatively low figure for a country of 3 million that has gone through
dramatic political and social upheavals since the Soviet collapse. Anecdotal
evidence suggests that many of them have at least one parent, usually a single
mother, who is unable to support them.

By Armen Zakarian


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