Yesterday the former Ombudsman of Armenia, Larisa Alaverdyan publicized her annual report. The report reads that the preparation of the report was hindered due to the well-known decree of the RA President as of January 04, 2006 and the Government decision as of January 12.
The report also touched upon the actions of the government and legislative initiatives that were directed against the development of the Ombudsman’s institutions, which jeopardized the “guarantees of the independent Ombudsman”. In particular, it is mentioned that despite the lack of the NA’s consent and public discussions, the Constitutional Court, by the appeal-letter of the RA President (through the initiative of the Minister of Justice and former Chairman of the Court of Appeal) has made certain changes in Article 7 of the “Law on protection of human rights”, which reads, “The Ombudsman is thus deprived of the authority to independently protect the rights of people. It should be done together with the court. The international practice proceeds in normal collaboration of Ombudsman-Judicial Branch. This factor is immensely important for post-soviet states. This is especially important for Armenia because basic human rights are very often violated during court procedures. And this circumstance originated distrust of the society towards judicial procedures”. The report also signifies the processes that take place after the adoption of the new constitution. This brought to the prevention of the actions of the Ombudsman and the institution’s activity overall. “All this clearly states that not only the role, functioning and importance of the Ombudsman is ignored but also the reputation of the country, which makes the activity of high-rank officials of Armenia very suspicious and obviously shows that they don’t wish to express political good will to make our country legal”, wrote L. Alaverdyan in her report. The report prepared by the latter also reads that despite certain constitutional amendments the judicial branch still depends on the executive because the final decision of nominating and appointing courts still belongs to the RA President. Furthermore, the the “relations between the judicial and the executive “seriously jeopardize the transparency and productivity of newly adopted amendments”. “Corruption is gradually becoming a greater factor in the individual-state relationships, which causes indifference and infringement of the laws among society members”, reads the report. The report also emphasizes that the principle of punishment is not applied for many Armenian high-rank officials, who do various violations in different sectors. Very often those violations are disguised by the supervising body. According to Mrs. Alaverdyan this report proves that despite all the obstacles that the Ombudsman’s institution has it can still develop and function properly if there are no interference on the part of the government and if the government adequately conceived the importance of the abovementioned institution. Mrs. Alverdyan thinks that the government must have realized that the effective functioning of the Ombudsman would become one of the best warranties of democratization and transparent politics. “The fact that they hinder the activity of the Ombudsman and prevention of his/her activity for at least a month states that the government evidently has not realized that importance. The expression “protection of human rights” still remains unfamiliar and unacceptable for our government”, this is how the former Ombudsman of Armenia concluded her report.