Yesterday in Yerevan the seminar on EU-Armenia Civil Society was wrapped up in Yerevan, which hosted representatives from various key international structures as well as different Armenian NGOs. During the seminar the both sides have mentioned various observation regarding the level of human right protection and independence of courts. At the end of the seminar we have tried to check the impression of European officials about the mentioned sectors of Armenia. Volchek Vysotsky, the officer of international relations of the Human Rights Department of the European Commission refused to comment and added that he’s not competent to do so. Instead of him he recommended that the journalists interview Raul Lutsenberg, the head of the EU delegation in Armenia. During the wrap-up if the seminar he only mentioned the projects and programs of the EU in Armenia for the sake of improvement of the mentioned sectors. We only succeeded asking a few questions to Paul Hauch Finger, vice-president of the international justice committee.
– You have participated in this seminar for two days in Armenia and have had the chance to listen to the opinion of various local organizations about the institute of human rights in Armenia and various observations about the independence of courts. Besides that during the rally of the previous day rally four opposition activists were arrested. In your opinion, in what shape are the mentioned sectors in Armenia?
– In my opinion the first major challenge is that the documents of the UN and other international structures related to the human rights are not translated and are not accessible to the judges. And the latter don’t have the other key documents, which are necessary for them to make their verdicts or decisions. And if the courts and judges don’t have information in Armenian about these documents how can the average citizens possibly have access to that? First of all the problem is the absence of the basic sources. The second issue is that perhaps Armenia seemingly has the necessity of widespread public awareness through trainings and various other means. The bearers of the human rights are the RA citizens and if even the courts don’t have accessibility to the human rights documents and the citizens don’t have at least low-level knowledge about these documents it means that something is going wrong. What can we expect from the government in that case? I think that there are certain steps expected from the government. Otherwise seminars in this format wouldn’t take place.
– Do you know that in Armenia there are political prisoners?
– According to certain sources I have heard that it is so.
– During the past several years a dozen of opposition representatives were arrested but they had lawyers, who were literate and had a very good knowledge on the documents mentioned by you. The courts and the whole judicial system are aware of these documents but this fact didn’t hinder them from still having several political prisoners still locked up in jail.
– Yes, yes I know. Indeed, I don’t have the whole information so I cannot give an exact interpretation on that. But you are the first journalist to ask me this question.
– At any rate, in your opinion do you actually think that the reason of the violation of human rights in Armenia is the unawareness of the public of their rights or the intention of the government and the judicial system?
– Indeed, it is the responsibility of the government. The government should spread the information on human rights in the country so that people become more aware. I wouldn’t say that the Armenian people don’t know anything about the human rights but I believe that the knowledge and awareness level should be higher. For example, it would be right if the subject of human rights was taught at the elementary and high schools. So we expect this program will bring further progress and success. When the government realizes that the people are well-aware it would operate in a more accordance with the international criteria. As of the issue of political prisoners even the UN reports mention that this phenomenon exists in Armenia.
– You are Danish. Are there political prisoners in your country?
– There have been no political prisoners for many years.
– During the last rally the opposition leader, the first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated that the international community is not making enough efforts to release the political prisoners in Armenia. Why is it so?
– No, this is the responsibly of Armenia and you cannot pass on this responsibility outside the country. The international community cannot interfere.