On March 20, the Civil Society Institute responded to a video material issued by the RA Police which had criticized the organization’s recently launched Study on Ill-treatment and Torture of Juveniles in the Republic of Armenia.

Press release is wholly presented below.

The Civil Society Institute (CSI) Responds
to the Criticizing Video Issued by the RA Police

Yerevan, Armenia– In
response to the video material produced by the RA Police on March 14, 2013, today
the Civil Society Institute sent a letter to Vladimir Gasparyan, Head of the
Police. In the message, the Police criticized the Study on Ill-treatment and Torture of Juveniles in the Republic of Armenia prepared
by CSI and Human Rights Defender’s Office in cooperation with UNICEF and Penal
Reform International. The study was launched earlier on March 13, 2013
revealing cases of violence of juveniles’ rights both at investigation and
trial stages as well as in detention.  

As
the co-author of the study, CSI acknowledges the call for cooperation made by
the Police and expresses willingness to continue joint work aimed at bringing
systemic change to the area.

At
the same time, CSI claims that ill-treatment and torture still occurs in
Armenia and this phenomenon relates both to juveniles and adults who ever dealt
with the police. In fact, fearing to worsen their state, torture victims never
pronounce that they have been subjected to violence before they are accused. Mostly,
these statements are made by offenders in the court; however, as the judicial monitoring
data shows, no criminal cases are initiated further to such statements.

In response to the request by the
police to provide facts, CSI mentioned that the above study had been made on
the basis of anonymous interviews among 86 juveniles, both detained and convict,
and area specialists including judges, lawyers, an attorney, an investigator as
well as staffs of NGOs, the “Abovyan” Penitentiary Institute and the Republican
No. 1 Special Education Complex. And the objective of these interviews had been
to reveal the phenomenon itself.

And
though the methodology of the current study does not allow disclosing names of
the interviewees, CSI through another research, the “Trial
Monitoring Report - Cases Involving Juvenile Defendants” has raised
a number of related issues. The Institute pointed to two recent cases of
juvenile offenders who announced in the court about their having been beaten by
police officers. No investigation was carried out based on those statements. Attached
to the letter, CSI sent the Police data and recording of these two cases.

The
study provided a number of suggestions, and CSI offers to discuss them with
respective specialists at the Police office.

Also, the study budget mentioned in the police’s
video material has been exaggerated by some 200 times.

CSI has got
considerable experience of issues of torture and human rights in Armenia. The
organization has
taken active part in the lobbying for the ratification of the UN Optional
Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT). For several years
CSI’s president Arman Danielyan has served as the chairman of the Group of
Public Monitors Implementing Supervision over the Criminal-Executive
Institutions and Bodies of the RA Ministry of Justice. Through www.hra.am
website, CSI prepares and distributes information about the recent developments
in the area. Throughout its activity, CSI initiates studies and participates in
the development of research papers and reports related to the area.