Do you know that in Armenia exists the Public Council, which, according to Article 161 of the Constitution, is a consulting body of the government? If there were reputable experts and public figures in our country, that body could play a particularly positive role in our public life. But since all potential authoritative can be “ruined” and razed to the ground by the Facebook “red brigades” in a minute, there are no authorities in reality, and no one has heard anything about the Public Council in the last few years.
In the same Constitution, there is a whole chapter, the 10th, dedicated to the Human Rights Defender. In contrast to the Public Council, the said institute existed not only on paper; in that sense, all its five leaders should be given credit. But at this moment, a worrying situation has been created. It has been more than ten days without an ombudsman, and the National Assembly does not attach importance to this issue.
Why is the Human Rights Defender needed? For example, for the case when, according to the news, violence is used first against minors and then against lawyers in the Erebuni police department. By the way, that department has “rich traditions”: in particular, in 2003-2004, special “service duties” were applied to opposition activists. In the past, the public sector rightly lashed out at “Serzhe’s cops, “but now there is no previous enthusiasm for judgment.
But an independent government body like the ombudsman’s office has a role to play here. I also think that the rights of the person with “Hummer” who committed illegal actions should be ensured and explained to the public that “opening fire in the face” is not a solution to the problem.
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When Pashinyan created the CC, he often used the adjective “institutional.” And institutional changes are a fundamental problem in our State. But, coming to power, he could not or did not want to reform, develop existing institutions, and create new ones. The old, rotten structures remained, where people loyal to the prime minister and his team came, doing what the “formers” did.
Nothing else can be done in this system.
ARAM ABRAHAMIAN
