According to Ara Ghazaryan, if systemic problems are solved within the country, the interest towards the ECHR will decrease
Specialist of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) Ara Ghazaryan thinks that the appeal of Alexander Arzumanyan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Kingdom of Denmark, would be satisfied by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In an interview with “Aravot” Mr. Ghazaryan explained: “There was nothing surprising. A number of such decisions are still waiting in line. 2006-2007 cases of March 1, dozens of cases, which the European Court has never referred to. There are lots of similar cases in a queue”.
Let us remind that, according to the European Court decision, the Republic of Armenia should pay Alexander Arzumanyan 2500 euros within three months after the final entry of the decision into force: 2000 euros for moral damage, 500 for compensation of court costs.
In response to our remark whether it is possible that Mr. Arzumanyan will not take that money because given the fact that he is an ambassador, Ara Ghazaryan said: “It is his civil right, regardless whether he is an ambassador or not. Everyone has civil rights, which has nothing to do with the person’s position. The ECHR has defined the amount of 2,500 euros according to Arzumanyan’s appeal, therefore, the European Court would not grant any money if it had not been demanded. Of course, the ECHR could also determine that the record of the violation itself was sufficient compensation, but if it refers to the violation of the right to freedom, sufficient compensation may be only through monetary compensation”.
In response to the question, whether this could be a precedent case to satisfy a number of other complaints, for example, the ones presented by members of “Sasna Tsrer”, relating to illegal detention, as Alexander Arzumanyan was also appealing for his detention regarding the famous “Money Laundering” case, Ara Ghazaryan said: “Every case is individual, and the European Court of Human Rights is examining the complaint within the scope of the case.
If the cases are similar, only in this case it can be said that the court could make a similar decision, but it cannot be stated, because besides the circumstances of the case, there are many other factors and conditions that could force the ECHR to come up with an unpredictable solution. Members of the “Sasna Tsrer” group can also succeed in the ECHR, depending on what they are disputing and depending on the further course of the proceedings. The fact that the group members decided to settle civil and political rights of citizens through violence, the ECtHR will not address this issue, but, for example, some of their civil rights issues, as far as I know, have been referred and can be discussed also in the future. In general, human rights belong to everyone, even to terrorists, even to those who call for violence, those who provoke violence”.
We asked Mr. Ghazaryan what the situation is, whether complaints against Armenia and the ECHR references have been increased or not. Mr. Ghazaryan replied: “Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan have entered the list of countries that are being judged very much. Previously, Russia, Romania, Ukraine, Italy and Turkey were in the list, but since last year Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan have entered the list as well. Considering the number of population complaints against Armenia are many, but in general those are few”. Mr. Ghazaryan said that there are also new phenomena: “The principle of religious beliefs, sexual orientation, discrimination, in general, of children’s rights, and the rights of refugees, are applied with great violations by the competent authorities in Armenia, which result in the violation of the European Convention”.
According to Mr. Ghazaryan, there is an increase in the number of complaints against Armenia in the ECHR. According to the ECHR expert, there are two factors for that: “The number of applications is increasing due to two factors: state bodies violate human rights, on the other hand, the number of professionals who are presenting qualitative complaints increases. For example, in 2007 only a few were filing complaints, only a few were imagining the role of the European Court or had an experience. Awareness, professionalism, interest towards the European Court are gradually growing, so there is an increase of a flow of high-quality applications. As of 2007, I knew several people who were working systematically, but now we have many lawyers and human rights activists who have a lot of knowledge and experience. There are even human rights defenders who successfully present complaints to the ECHR without cooperation with lawyers. Capacities of institutions dealing with human rights have also grown.
But let me repeat myself, that first of all state bodies are to blame here, because a lot of questions that need to be solved in the national system, are not resolved, and that is why people turn to the ECHR. It is clear that if systemic issues are solved within the country, the interest towards the ECHR will decrease”.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
