“PEOPLE SHOULD SAFEGUARD THEIR RIGHTS”

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Election conduct testifies to the level of human rights protection in countries. We cannot speak of human rights protection if elections are faked, head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan Sergey Kapinos announced today during the events dedicated to International Day of Human Rights Protection.

In this respect he highlighted the 2008 presidential elections in Armenia.

Armenia’s Human Rights Ombudsman Armen Harutiunian shared his stance and noted that the country is already taking efforts to champion human rights. The Constitutional amendments of 2005 and the parliamentary elections of 2007 manifest to Armenia’s will-power.

Human rights protection is a priority of the national security, Armen Harutiunian said. He highly assessed the recent changes in the legislative sphere at the same time mentioning that they are sometimes incompliant with “the letter and spirit of the law.”

The best way to amend the sphere is to control the authorities, the RA Ombudsman says.

People shouldn’t sit with crossed hands and wait for the authorities to protect their rights. Hardly any Armenian feels safe in the country nowadays. People should safeguard their rights themselves.

In general the Armenian Ombudsman is discontent with the freedom of expression in Armenia.

Freedom of expression is far from being on the highest level. Surely, there is pluralism, I do not deny it, but it is not on a sufficient level.