From 30 November to 2 December, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe is meeting in Strasbourg to examine how member states of the Council of Europe implement judgments by the European Court of Human Rights.
For Armenia, a group of cases “Mushegh Saghatelyan v. Armenia” is on the agenda. There are 13 cases in this group. The European Court has already delivered its judgments on these cases and found ill-treatment by the police and absence of any official investigation; unlawful arrest and detention; disproportionate and unnecessary dispersal of protests.
The detailed information about the status of execution of this group of judgments is available here. Last time, the Committee of Ministers examined the execution of these judgments in June 2020; back then, the Committee of Ministers:
- called on Armenia to adopt the draft laws to entrench positive changes in the field of combatting ill-treatment and investigations into such allegations;
- noted the gradual installation of audio and video surveillance equipment in police premises and invited the authorities to clarify their use and in particular whether the law enforcement agencies are obliged to use these recordings during interrogations as evidence;
- welcomed the measures taken to reduce overcrowding in prisons and strongly encouraged the authorities to continue to take determined action in order to fully overcome this problem; in this context, underlined the importance of clarifying the functioning of the judicial remedy against the prison administration and invited the authorities to provide information on the outcome of the appeals submitted;
- taking note of the legislative changes adopted thus far aimed at strengthening the guarantees against unlawful detention and ensuring fair trial standards, strongly urged the authorities to do their utmost to avoid any further delays in the adoption of the draft Code of Criminal Procedure and its entry into force with a view to bringing the practice of the prosecutorial and judicial bodies as to detention fully in line with the Convention requirements;
- noted further the Constitutional and legislative developments and the practical measures taken with a view to ensuring the right to freedom of assembly and called on the authorities to continue their efforts with a view to further improve the exercise of this right while taking duly into account the recommendations made by the competent national and international bodies;
- invited the authorities to provide updated information on all outstanding questions by 31 March 2021.
The new decisions by the Committee of Ministers will be published on Friday, 3 December – I will share it with you once it is out.
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The full press release about the Committee of Ministers meeting is below. The factsheet about how Armenia executes judgments of the European Court is available here.
