On March 3, after Karen Andreasyan took the post of Human Rights Defender of Armenia, he announced, that he will keep a 50-day silence, and asked the mass media not to expect any public speeches and comments.

The 50-day silence is over now. In order to initiate the solution of the most urgent issues, the Defender presented to the public his reflection on these issues.

Reflection on social rights

"Today 34.1 % of the population in the Republic of Armenia is poor, i.e. every 3rd citizen. The minimum salary of 32.500 AMD (≈90USD), stipulated by the law, does not have at its basis the amount of the minimum basket of goods and is not considered as basis of social policy and calculation of social benefits of the State. I am more than sure that not a single methodology existing in the world would be able to confirm that 32.500 AMD in the Republic of Armenia as a monthly minimum subsistence budget can be enough.

As a mediator between the authorities and society I am ready to present constructive suggestions from different society groups including opposition parties, non-governmental organizations and individuals to the RA National Assembly and Government by the order prescribed by the law thus influencing the state policy adopted in the field of social security."

Reflection on Rights to Freedom of Assemblies

"From the very first day since I am at the office, I have received complaints connected with right to freedom of assembly and protest and with the necessity of protecting this right. The limitation, as well as the abuse of the right to peaceful assembly is viewed not only as a significant deviation from the principles of democracy, but also as a serious threat to the stability of the state and civil society".

Reflection on Property Rights

"We can conditionally divide the cases at the HRD's office connected with violation of property rights into several categories: complaints against the State Committee of the Real Estate Cadastre, cases of the Municipality of Yerevan failing to exercise the verdicts of the Court, cases when the Service of compulsory execution of judicial acts does not contribute to the exercise of the property rights of the citizen, since it doesn't enforce the leverages granted by law, namely the enforcement of the verdicts of the court that came into force.

A separate challenge is the violation of realizing the property right, when under the name of "social priority interest" territories are alienated from people, and proper compensations are not paid."

Reflection on Freedom of expression

"I have the following concerns over this issue:

The right to freedom of expression of the journalists should not be limited because of judicial   mistakes.

The dignity of any person should not be blurred because of the violation of laws and rules of     journalistic ethics.

The demand of each of the member of our society connected with pluralism on TV and radio     should be satisfied.

On April 30, 2011, the work over the draft of the RA law on "Radio and TV" will be summarized after the forum on freedom of media, and at the end of May, the draft together with the opinions of the working group and international experts will be presented to the RA National Assembly.

On May 1, during the forum on freedom of media I plan to present concrete mechanism, which will be aimed to prevent judicial mistakes on cases connected with freedom of expression."

Reflection on the right to a fair trial

"In 2010 request for the protection of the right to a fair trial formed 40% of the total number of the complaints received by the Human Rights Defender. By the law I am authorized to protect people from all the state authorities except courts. My liabilities in the judicial system are very restricted. I cannot interfere into a single issue which is subject to judicial inquiry.

Օn May 27, 2011 I planned a Forum with the RA Chamber of Advocates on the protection of the right to a fair trial during which I am going to present my concrete suggestions and actions towards future amendments and development of the judicial system."

Reflection on the issues of violence, torture and inhuman treatment

"It is obvious that at present incidents of violence are particularly often occurring in armed forces, the Police and penitentiary institutions. The occurrences of subjecting servicemen to disciplinary detention without official investigation are more than worrisome. I appreciate positively the idea of Disciplinary Code of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia in circulation as with the adoption of the Code detention as a means of punishment of a serviceman will not be used. The provision of disciplinary company envisaged by the draft proves its compliance with democratic standards.

Our citizens and their advocates for many times informed that people are taken and kept in the police stations without any basis as well as are forbidden to meet their advocates. Only in some cases, after the Defender's interference, violated rights of the people have been restored. Cases of beating, violence, threat and other humiliating actions towards the juveniles in the Police stations are revealed in the UN Children's Fund Report for 2010.

The Defender's Office, as an institution responsible for prevention of torture, had an expert group on torture prevention, consisting of experienced professionals specialized in legal, social, psychological, military and other sciences. In order to make the activities of this group more efficient, the Defender's Office suggested to cooperate with a number of non - governmental organizations specialized in this sphere for involving their representatives into the monitoring group. Through research and analysis the group will reveal not only problems of overcrowding and dire living conditions of imprisoned people, but also the cases of violence and inhuman treatment obviously occurring in places of deprivation of liberty and make them available for public giving concrete suggestions on torture prevention."

Reflection on the consequences of March events

My authorization for legal protection of cases of the 2008 March events is quite limited. The "Law on Human Rights Defender" forbids me to intervene the trial, give assessments to the verdicts of courts, also, one year of time limitation is provided for the cases that I proceed and examine.

I want to suggest my intention of acting as mediator between the Armenian National Congress (ANC) and parliamentary coalition. With expectations of positive response and determination of initiating concrete steps, I will send my suggestion to the ANC and parliamentary coalition.

HR Defender Karen Andreasyan will answer the journalists questions on April 26, at 12.00 p.m. at HRD's Office.