The
European officials affirmed during the round table on "The freedom of holding
meetings; legislation and use" theme organized by the CoE Commission of Venice
and OSCE Yerevan office. The project of making amendments and additions
in the law "About holding meetings, demonstrations and processions"
was in the focus of discussions, which has been already adopted by the first reading.
The experts have mentioned that there are essential improvements in the project
of amendments but there are some troubles especially about 7 territories forbidden
for mass meetings /the residence of the President, Public TV Company/. The secretary
of the Commission of Venice Jeannie Bukikio also mention about it during the interview. The normal processes of the aging brain remain poorly understood, and some degree of memory loss is expected in usual senescence. Approximately 10% of the population over age 70 years will have significant memory loss, and at least half of these cases of dementia will be attributed to Alzheimer disease (AD).
And he underlined in his speech that the right use of law was necessary for recognizing
the right of organizing demonstrations in Armenia. "The British say that
the proof of pudding is in its eating. So we you can have the best law in the
world but it must be used." On the occasion the Commission of Venice considers
very important the lectures organized for the police.The chairman of the office
on OSCE democratic institutions and human rights, the Ambassador Christian Strohal
mentioned that in case of mass demonstrations the authorities of the country mustn’t
take arrangements for using limitations, they must assist in holding a peaceful
meeting.The mass demonstrations must be "peaceful, orderly without slogans
of violence but the main thing is the freedom and the limitations must be exceptions
which must be directed to the keeping of law.The OSCE expert Michael Hamilton
also stressed that the rule was the freedom of organizing demonstrations and the
limitations must be exceptions. The limitations can refer to the music, use of
alcohol or to what terrace the demonstrators must walk. He also noticed that the
violence must be used in extreme cases. The OSCE another expert Nil Jarman declared
that the representatives of Police must be in an invisible place not to affect
aggression at the participants of the demonstration. He also informed that holding
legal demonstrations isn’t prevented in other countries avoiding of the further
tension.The representatives of the bodies that refuse the demonstrations of
the opposition were also present in the discussion. The representative of the
Yerevan mayor Gagik Baghdasarian informed that 68 applications on organizing demonstrations
had been produced and only 8 of them had been refused in 2004. The law allows
not to permit organizing a mass demonstration if there is true information that
holding a demonstration will cause a serious damage to the lives of persons or
health." At the end of the discussion the NA deputy chairman Tigran Torosian
promised that some amendments would be made in producing the draft to the second
reading.Anna IsraelianP.S. We must mention that the
inhabitants of the North Avenue were demonstrating in front of the hotel "Congress"
where the discussion was taking place. "We ask for fair compensation",
– the demonstrators were crying. Neither Kocharian nor the compensation payers
were taking part in that discussion. But the European experts seeing all these
could suppose that the right of organizing demonstrations is respected in Armenia.