Today all the parties serving on the Justice faction with the exception of Republic party held a sitting, the agenda of which contained one item only - to issue a statement on the draft constitutional amendments. The statement adopted by the faction is presented below. {BR} STATEMENT Armenia is not a democratic and rule of law country. Falsified elections, union of authorities with criminal elements,...

Today at 11 a.m. a march organized by National League for Independence of Armenia had to start from the monument to Saryan and proceed to the National Assembly and the President’s residence. The non-registered organization warned the city administration about the action. {BR} However the next day the League members received a notification barring the march. Deputy chief of the municipal police...

In the Kotayq region town of Hrazdan the elections of mayor took place on May 29. According to preliminary results, Aram Danielyan has received 10 482 votes, while Arthur Shaboyan – 10 133. Arthur Shaboyan has already announced about electoral frauds and the results of some of the polling stations have already been appealed. {BR} About 300-400 citizens who disagreed with the results of the elections...

RA first Foreign Minister Raffi Hovannisian was elected today President of the party Heritage. But before the election he made a one-hour speech in which he represented concisely our history of the first, second and third Republics. {BR} He called everyone not to criticize the founders of either the first or the second republics as if it weren't for them, perhaps the third republic would not exist....

Today the usual conference of the «Heritage» party took place. But as it was expected, there were no sensational announcement about the creation of a new bloc. {BR} Moreover, those who made speech, reproached the political powers putting in doubt the independence and sovereignty of our country. «If there is a person who considers his country not the appendix of another country but a real sovereignty,...

The Azeri authorities are in negotiations with official Tbilisi in order not to allow the Russian military forces coming out of Georgia to be transported to Armenia. According to the internet newspaper day.az, the Azeri Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Georgia Ramiz Hasanov has said this. {BR} He has said that Azerbaijan understands why Georgia strives for the Russian military forces...

“The human rights defender is called to protect the rights of a citizen before the state bodies, first of all before the executive power”, constitutional right specialist Vardan Poghosyan considers. This legal institute appeared for the first time in the 13th century in Sweden and only 700 years later the Swedish word “ombudsman” was fixed in the constitutions of other states....

Who should appoint the Defender of Human Rights? We surveyed 100 people in the Yerevan streets May 22-26. 55% of the respondents consider that the Ombudsman should be elective. 23% hold the opinion that the human rights defender should be appointed by the parliament. One of them said that it is more democratic, since various political forces are represented in the parliament. However all of them (78%)...

In the opinion of the parliamentary oppositional forces the Ombudsman should be elected by the National Assembly. “The institute of ombudsman was formed by the Armenian leadership for exercising a recurrent imitative policy. The Ombudsman only imitates a working atmosphere. Actually we do not have a human rights defender”, Secretary of National Unity faction Alexan Karapentyan said. In...

”Today due to adopted or not adopted laws and under law acts not only individuals’ rights but also the rights of groups of people are violated in Armenia”, Human Rights Defender Larisa Alaverdyan stated. She cannot contest the correspondence of these laws and under law acts that caused human rights violations to the Constitution. “At one time international experts unanimously...

In Europe the institute of ombudsman is a parliamentary body, since human rights are violated by the executive power”, chairman of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia Avetik Ishkhanyan noted. He is against the appointment of the Ombudsman by the President. “Actually the formation of the institute of ombudsman of Armenia was a mere formal step in order to demonstrate the fulfillment of commitments to the CE”, he says. Aveti, Ishkhanyan considers...

Leaders of the Christian Democratic Union of Armenia and National Self-Determination Union hold different opinions on the problems connected with the Ombudsman's activities. CDUA leader Khosrov Harutyunyan considers that for the formation of the institute of human rights defender the role of the society is very important. “We should go forward and form the institute of ombudsman helping each other....

The institute of the human rights defender is a novelty in our reality. However in the world practice this institute has significant weight. Thus, the standards the Ombudsman should be guided by should not be defined by us”, leader of the RPA Galust Sahakyan said. ”I suppose that the human rights defender should not only deal with the courts and administrative bodies. First of all each...

“The change of authorities must take place as soon as possible”, said leader of the People’s Party of Armenia and Justice bloc Stepan Demirchyan during the meeting with the activists of the party in Arabkir while asked the question “when”. And he advised everyone for the sake of the successful finish of the started business not to complain but to struggle for your rights. He added that the success depends on the efforts of each of us and...

The Venice Commission has assessed the draft constitutional amendments, as adopted by the Armenian National Assembly in a first reading on 11 May 2005. {BR} The members of the Venice Commission's Working Group on constitutional reform in Armenia expressed their deep dissatisfaction with this text, as most of the Commission's comments (*) have not been taken into consideration, notably those concerning...

OSCE Minsk group c-chairs representing America, France and Russia – Steven Mann, Bernard Fassier and Yurij Merzlyakov met with foreign minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov. During the meeting that lasted 4 hours the sides discussed preparation for the following meeting of foreign ministers within so-called Prague process as well as results of the Warsaw meeting between Ilham Aliyev and Robert...

The issue of the opposition returning to the Parliament is no more discussed. The opposition itself is not coming back to the Parliament in the fall session. First, that has never been discussed, and besides, as Justice bloc secretary Viktor Dallakyan said, the authorities are aware of the demands of the opposition in order to return to the Parliament. {BR} Although the OYP deputies hint at being...

On June 1-2 the Venice Commission experts will arrive in Armenia to get acquainted with the course of the Constitutional reforms. Let us remind you that the coalition draft has been chosen as basis for the Constitutional reforms. And the coalition has not yet taken into account come of the principle problems put forward by the Venice commission. {BR} Galoust Sahakyan, leader of the Republican party...

The majority of the Parliamentary groupings and fractions evaluate the work of the 2-year work of the 3rd National Assembly as “satisfactory”. {BR} Head of the fraction “Orinats Yerkir” Samvel Balasanyan evaluated the work pf the deputies as “good”. The highest mark of Mr. Balasanyan, according to him, was not conditioned by the fact that the NA President is the OYP leader. On the contrary, he said he approaches the issue critically,...

Member-parties of the Interparty Consultant Body (ICB) made a statement, which says in part that the country has reached a political deadlock, there are no prospects of development and political changed via democratic elections became impossible. {BR} The ICB state the amending the principal law of the republic – the Constitution- on the initiative of a illegal President and the National assembly...

Today members of Democracy public organization presented in detail the changes to the Election Code, which in their opinion are anti-constitutional and regressive as compared to the acting code and do not secure fair and free elections {BR} The organization prepared the conclusion of experts regarding the Election Code and is ready to present it to all the interested parties, including the OSCE Bureau...

“The control over the territories is the business of the NKR authorities and the decisions on these territories cannot be taken without the consent of the people of Karabakh”, NKR Foreign Minister Arman Melikyan stated. {BR} In his words, the statements by the Azeri officials regarding these territories and withdrawal of the Armenian troops from there do not correspond to reality. No...

"A1+" TV Company will be evicted from the building where it has been working for 15 years. Today the RA Court of Cassations introduced no changes to the decision by the RA Economic Court, according to which the suit of the National Academy of Sciences demanding eviction of “A1+” was upheld. {BR} To remind, the President of “A1+” was informed about the decision by the Court...

The reading of the annual report of the Standing Committee on Financial-Credit, Budgetary and Economic Affairs was held in an almost empty hall. One independent deputy, 2 deputies representing Orinats Yerkir Party, three deputies of the Republican Party of Armenia and three representatives of People’s Deputy party. {BR} Before proceeding to the reports the parliament voted on the issues that...