Human rights activist Arthur Sakunts has a reserved attitude to the sections about Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh found in the annual report of Freedom House entitled “Freedom in the World 2015”. The rating in the report that Armenia is a partly free country, according to human rights activist, should be considered in comparison. “If we compare it with Turkmenistan or Azerbaijan, where recently, a whole group of human rights activists were sentenced and unfounded criminal charges were filed, can be considered a partly free country. Certainly, you cannot be compared with Russia,” said human rights activist. According to the report, the level of political rights in Armenia is rated 5 out of the 7-point scale, and the level of civil freedom is 4 points.
According to human rights activist, “If we compare the field of possibilities of Armenia’s civil freedoms with those in Russia, indeed, we are much better than Russia or Azerbaijan. In the same Azerbaijan or Russia, the restrictions especially on the rights to freedom of rallies are tightened at the legislative level, including the restriction on activities of NGOs. We do not have similar restrictions in Armenia at the legislative level, although, I must say that now some provisions are tried to fix in the law on NGOs in Armenia, which enhance the control over the activities of NGOs, even the possibility of interfering.”
