On
 June 27, 2013 the Conference on “Refraining from Torture and the Right to
Rehabilitation-2013” devoted to the International Day in Support of  Victims of  Torture took 
place.

The event was organized
jointly by the Armenian Human Rights Defender’s Office, “Civil Society Institute”
(CSI) NGO and “Foundation against Violation of Law” (FAVL) NGO as a part of
series of the events to
mark the United Nations’ International Day in Support of  Victims of  Torture.

 “The
practice of torture established in our country since the first years of Soviet
era cannot be overcome by a mere statement of the Head of Police or by convicting
few police officers. We expect serious systemic approach of the State in order
to allow for all relevant agencies to have a clear list of actions aiming at
combating and stopping the practice of torture. We have presented our
recommendations for such Action Plan and we stand ready to discuss them with
all relevant state agencies if needed”, told CSI President Arman Danielyan in his
opening speech.

The representative of the Armenian Human
Rights Defender’s Office Genya Petrosyan informed that in July 2013 the Ombudsman
will present the Interim Report of the National Preventive Mechanism and will
report on 133 visits in the closed and semi closed institutions carried out in
the first quarter of 2013 jointly by the Ombudsman’s staff and a number of
NGOs.

The visits were carried out in penitentiary
institutions, psychiatric institutions, detention places, child institutions,
military units and others.

President of the NGO “Foundation Against
Violation of Law” Mikael Aramyan stressed out that due to the unclear legal
definition of  “torture”  there is no statistical data available on how
many people in Armenia were subjected to torture and how many perpetrators were
punished.

 “We
should keep in mind that not only torture is a criminally prosecuted conduct but
also a torture victim has the right to rehabilitation and it is the inalienable
right. For that reason we should not only prevent torture but also help the
victim of torture to receive redress and rehabilitation”, told Mr. Aramyan.

Recommendations on torture prevention

CSI lawyer Tatevik Gharibyan presented the
recommendations which were officially submitted to the relevant state agencies,
such as the Armenian Police, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Armenia, the
Court of Cassation of Armenia, the Special Investigation Service of Armenia, the
Armenian National Assembly and the Ministry of Justice of Armenia during the
picketing organized the day before.

The NGOs recommend amending the Armenian Criminal
Code and Criminal Procedure Code to bring the definition of torture in
compliance with the UN Convention.

The Prosecutor of Shengavit Administrative
District of Yerevan Artur Davtyan while providing the feedback regarding the
observation of the lawyer about incompliance of “torture” definition enshrined
in Article 119 of the Armenian Criminal Code to the definition envisaged by the
UN Convention, said that although Article 119 is entitled “Torture”, it has nothing
to do with the torture definition under the UN Convention. It covers
ill-treatment but does not imply torture perpetrated by the public authority
with the certain purpose.

Hence, the prosecutor considered wrong and
formal to amend Article 119 and bring it into compliance with the torture
definition under the UN Convention.

 “We do
not have a separate legal provisionin terms of  torture definition under the UN Convention. Such
conduct is regulated by other different articles”, told Artur Davtyan.

According to the statistics presented by the Deputy
Head of the Special Investigation Service Armen Nadiryan, in 2012 case
materials on 43 cases were prepared on the allegations of violance used by public
officials, in particular police officers. However, only two criminal cases were
instituted, one of which has been terminated and the other case (against two operative
police officers) has been transferred to the court and now is at the stage of
court proceedings. One of the episodes of this case was initially separated and
currently is under pre-trial investigation.

“While last year there were 43 files prepared
on such allegations, as of the beginning of this year we already have almost the
same number of cases, there are 41 allegations at the moment. 3 criminal cases have
been instituted and pre-trial investigation is in progress”, told Mr. Nadiryan.

While answering the question posed by CSI
lawyer Anna Melikyan on how many cases were instituted on allegations of
forcibly extracting testimonies (under Article 341 “Forcing testimony” of the
Armenian Criminal Code) within the last two years, the Deputy Head of SIS told
that no criminal case has been instituted under this article in the past two
years. “As far as I know, last time the charges under this article were brought
either in 2008 or 2009”. 

Definition of torture is perceived differently

The results of the public opinion survey on awareness
of the population about torture ordered by CSI were presented at the conference.

The survey has been conducted by phone and
according to the results, a significant part of the society has a wrong
understanding of torture.

In response to the question “Have you heard
about torture practice while in police custody”, 49,9% of the respondents
answered in the affirmative whereas 51, 2 % of the respondents heard about
torture practice in penitentiary institutions.

The latter data raised discontent of the
Criminal Executive Department representative who participated at the event.
“There is no criminal case instituted in the recent years on allegations of torture
in penitentiary institutions. What is the added value of the survey if we do
not have a precedent”, he said.

CSI President Arman Danielyan noted that the
mere fact that no criminal case was instituted does not mean that torture is
impossible in a penitentiary institution. “I believe that this survey should be
helpful and interesting for you at least to reflect on why the society has such
a perception about the penitentiary system”, added Arman Danielyan.

Another employee of the Criminal-Executive
Department, Gayane Hovakimyan , stressed that the survey results raise concerns
and they show that there are certain issues and they should take steps to
change the existing stereotype.

The event is wrapped up but the organizers
assure that the fight against torture will be continued until the complete
elimination of torture in Armenia.

The conference “Refraining from Torture and the Right to
Rehabilitation-2013” was funded jointly by the European Union and
Norwegian Helsinki Committee.