The Office for Democratic Institutes and Human Rights (ODIHR) and The Council of Europe Venice Commission have announced that they highly appreciate the agreement with the Armenian authorities to revise the recent amendments to the law on rallies and public demonstrations. “This is an achievement concerning the law on demonstrations due to the long-term cooperation between the OSCE/ODIHR and Venice commission,” according to radio Liberty said the chief of the ODIHR Christian Shtrohal. General secretary of the Venice commission Ganni Bukikio emphasized that “the Venice commission and ODIHR are waiting for new amendments to the draft and are ready to consider them to make them consistent with the international standards.” The OSCE statement reads that on March 28 the ODIHR and Venice commission expressed serious concerns in terms of the above-mentioned amendments, which were adopted in a short period following the events of March 1. The ODIHR and Venice commission delegates visited Yerevan on April 15-16 and met with representatives of the Armenian government. During these meetings they reached an agreement with the government representatives to cancel or revise the limitations and restrictions in the amendments to the law on rallies, marches and especially spontaneous demonstrations.
