PURPOSE IS TO DEFEND RIGHTS OF NKR CITIZENS
Evika Babayan
Azat Artsakh Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
05 Sept 05
In the Soviet Union the first non-governmental association for
the rights of citizens was founded in 1969. One of the founders
of the civic action group for human rights in the USSR was Henry
Altunyan. Human Rights Artsakh Association NGO was registered in
NKR on June 28, 2002. At present 8 persons are involved in the
organization, seven of them are lawyers. They are judges, lawyers
and businessmen. Two members of the association live in the United
States. The goal of the organization is to defend the rights, freedoms
and legal interests of man and citizen as one of the indivisible and
superior values, guided by the principles of legality and humanism. The
objectives of the organizations are provision and defence of the rights
and legal interests of NKR and foreign citizens, holding seminars,
trainings and consultations widely involving people in order to improve
awareness, exchange of experience of supporting human rights and legal
interests with local and international organizations Our interview
is with the chairman of the Human Rights Artsakh Association, Georgy
Safaryan. Evika Babayan: “Mr. Safaryan, how did the idea of founding
an association occur?” Georgy Safaryan: “The idea, in fact, came to
many members of our organization. Karabakh is an unrecognized state,
and human rights are often violated here. We want to help people in
some way and therefore decided to set up an NGO to support human
rights and freedoms, help them defend their rights. Access to our
organization is free and people know this very well. Many turn to
us for help. The help is, actually, free of charge though there is a
nuance, but it is not already human rights but services of a lawyer. We
work out projects for protection of certain groups of citizens and
organize the work in accordance with them.” E.B.: “What projects is
the organization working on at present?” G.S.: “We have three projects
that we are going to implement. We try to struggle against corruption
We have broken the project into three stages. In the!
first stage we will conduct an opinion poll to find out what people
know about corruption generally and if they ever faced this phenomenon
or not. In the second stage we will sum up the results of the survey
and conduct a round-table meeting on TV and in press for people, the
authorities, political parties and set this topic for discussion. The
third stage of the project is to look for ways and methods of struggle
against corruption. I know that it is impossible to eliminate it
but at least we may try to prevent it. The second project concerns
the rights of workers. It refers to the labour code.” E.B.: “But
labour unions were set up for defending the rights of workers. What
is your role then?” G.S.: “I know about the labour unions and it is
good that they are there. It often happens that people are employed
without signing a labour contract. As a result the person works but
the period when he works is not added to his years of service. On
the one hand, this is violation of their rights, on the other hand,
it spurs black economy. As a result the citizens’ rights are violated
and taxes are not paid to the government. The project is divided into
three stages. In the first stage it is planned to find facts, persons
and companies whose rights were violated. In the second stage the
whole material should be put together and extended to relevant bodies
(public prosecutor, tax agency, etc.) to take necessary measures. In
the third stage we will extend our conclusion to the relevant bodies
of the government and the National Assembly. Te third project refers
to the health sector. We know that a number of laws concerning health
were adopted but we would like to find out if these laws are effective
and if the workers of the health sector follow them. The reason is
that we receive a lot of complaints that in some hospitals people are
asked to pay for free services. Those who are granted allowances are
also asked to pay. There were also complaints from people who were
granted allowances but could not get med!
icine for free. Li ke the other two, the third project is also divided
into three stages: fact finding, summary and conclusion to be extended
to relevant bodies. We hope to finish the project by the end of the
year.” E.B.: “Do you have relationships with similar organizations of
Armenia and the CIS?” G.S.: “Yes, we set up relationships with the
ombudsman of Armenia Larissa Alaverdyan and proposed a project of
cooperation. Through our members in America we set up relationships
with the Global Exchange. By the way, the representatives of this
organization monitored the recent parliamentary election.” E.B.:
“Mr. Safaryan, could you bring concrete cases when the rights of the
citizens were defended by the organization?” G.S.: “First I want
to remind that our organization defends human rights. We cannot
take part in the work of courts, police if it is not a case of
violation of human rights, i.e. illegal arrest, violence, etc. As
to concrete cases, in 2003 a doctor of the mental hospital turned
to us for help. The police had sent a person to the hospital for
examination. He suffered from alcohol addiction and had neurotic and
mental problems. After the treatment the person could be discharged
but the police did not permit to. Our investigation revealed a case
of violation of human rights, when he was illegally forced to stay
at the mental hospital. We immediately prepared a letter addressed to
relevant bodies, including the director of public prosecutions and the
Ministry of Health, and the person was immediately discharged from the
mental hospital and sent to his place of residence.” E.B.: “Did the
ethnic minorities ever turn to you for protecting their rights?” G.S.:
“Ethnic minorities did not turn to us, and the reason may be their
small number. As to religious minorities, some of them complained that
their organizations could not be registered, and we helped them.” E.B.:
“Mr. Safaryan, what would you like to add in the end?” G.S.: “We are
hopeful to start cooperation with all the relevant org!
anizations and we believe that both as an organization and individuals
we will be able to accomplish NKR as a lawful country and promote
democratic institutions, one of them being human rights.”