Ombudsman: Ministry of Justice Should Not Interfere With Activities of Advocates
Advocates have applied to the Human Rights Defender’s office against
the draft law by the minister of justice Hrair Tovmasyan. The draft
law envisages charging of an additional fee. The draft law had also
been submitted to the Defender by the Ministry of Defense for an
opinion, the HRD’s office informs.
The defender has studied the draft and concluded that the Ministry of
Justice is interfering with the independence of advocates, assuming
the function of running the records book of advocates and charging
additional fees for that.
Besides, it is not acceptable that the fees charged from advocates
will be used to fund the Public Defender’s Office, because funding
this office is the only positive duty of the state.
The HRD recommended reviewing the draft amendments to the Law On
Advocacy and the Law on State Duty and hold discussions with
stakeholders and take into consideration comments made by the HRD’s
office before circulating them.
14:42 12/10/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
