At its latest meeting last week, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe examined how member states, including Armenia, implement judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. Please, see the official press release below.
The following case against Armenia was on the agenda: Muradyan v. Armenia. The European Court’s judgment in this case became final on 24/02/2017. It concerned the failure to provide plausible explanation for the injury sustained by the applicant’s son (a military conscript based in Nagorno Karabakh) and his ensuing death, as well as lack of an effective investigation into his death.
The Committee of Ministers adopted the following decision on the implementation of this judgment:
The Deputies
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1. noted that these cases concern the authorities’ failure to comply with their positive obligation to protect the applicants’ sons’ right to life during their military service, as well as the absence of effective investigations into their deaths which occurred in the period from 2001 to 2010;
As regards individual measures
2. underlining that rapid and thorough action in the pending investigations is crucial to prevent any loss of evidence or the prescription of offences, called upon the authorities to give the necessary priority and swiftly complete the investigations in the Muradyan, Anahit Mkrtchyan, Nana Muradyan and Ohanjanyan cases, as well as invite them to provide detailed information on the progress made;
3. considered that no further individual measures are possible in the Manukyan, as well as Hovhannisyan and Nazaryann cases; decided consequently to close the supervision of these cases and adopted Final Resolution CM/ResDH(2023)479;
As regards general measures
4. invited the authorities to provide statistical data for the past five years regarding the investigation of non-combat deaths in the armed forces;
5. encouraged the authorities to rapidly make progress in the establishment of an anonymous referral mechanism for reporting torture, inhuman or degrading treatment in the armed forces and to update the Committee in this regard, as well as invited them to report on the implementation of the relevant activities of the Human Rights Action Plan;
6. invited further the authorities to provide information on targeted measures to prevent hazing of servicemen as well as their bullying and ill-treatment by military hierarchy;
7. noting with interest the preparation of draft Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention Strategy, invited the authorities to inform the Committee about the actions envisaged in the Strategy, timing for its adoption and steps envisaged for its further implementation, as well as to provide information on the measures taken to ensure proper psychological assessment and assistance to military servicemen;
8. requested information on the steps taken to exclude conscription in view of significant health problems of service personnel;
9. decided to resume consideration of these cases at one of their DH meetings in 2025 at the latest.
