Human Right Watch Organization
April 23 2010
Universal Periodic Review of Armenia
Human Rights Watch’s submission (November 2009)
Summary
This submission highlights several key areas of concern regarding
Armenia’s compliance with its international human rights obligations,
including election-related and post-election violence; lack of
accountability for excessive use of force by law enforcement officials;
violations of the right to freedom of assembly and expression; torture
and inhuman and degrading treatment in custody; official harassment
and attacks on human rights defenders; and the right to access to
controlled medicines.
Election-related and post-election violence
Armenia has a history of violent elections. Although the Council of
Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities (CLRAE), stated
that the May 31, 2009 Yerevan City Council elections were broadly
in compliance with European standards, it also documented cases of
intimidation of party proxies and observers by unidentified persons.
Unidentified assailants attacked opposition journalists Gohar Veziryan
(IV Estate), Tatev Mesropyan (Hayq), and Marine Kharatian (Zhamannak),
and prevented them from accessing polling stations. The government
failed to investigate and prosecute the assailants.
Violence and irregularities also marred the February 2008 presidential
elections. Then-Prime Minister Serj Sargsyan won with 52.8 percent
of the vote, defeating the opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian
(21.5 percent). Human Rights Watch documented nine cases of assailants
intimidating, threatening, and even violently attacking opposition
party activists, journalists, and observers who had complained about
what they believed to be electoral fraud and other violations of
election rules.[1]
Opposition supporters who claimed that Sargsyan’s victory was
the result of fraud began a continuous protest immediately after
the election, with daily rallies and an overnight encampment on
a city-center square. The authorities initially tolerated the
protesters. However, on March 1, special police forces confronted
them. As a result of clashes between protesters and police, at least
10 persons were killed–eight civilians and two police officers–and
scores were injured. While in some instances, the use of force may
have been legitimate (such as in response to a small group of violent
protesters), in many others it was unprovoked and excessive.
[2] In the aftermath of the violence there were more than 100 arrests.
Human Rights Watch documented physical abuse and ill-treatment of
detainees during their arrests as well as while they were being
transported to the police department. In some cases, both verbal and
physical abuse continued in police custody. We have documented 38
detention cases, in 27 of which the detainees alleged ill-treatment.
We have also documented serious due process violations, including
incommunicado detention and lack of access to a lawyer of one’s
choosing.
Lack of accountability for excessive use of force
Armenian authorities have yet to ensure a meaningful investigation into
and accountability for excessive use of force by security forces during
clashes with protestors on March 1 and 2, 2008. Their response has
focused on identifying and prosecuting those responsible for organizing
the demonstrations and on prosecuting others for participating in
"violent" disorder. The government prosecuted more than 50 civilians
on charges arising from the demonstrations and sentenced some to
lengthy prison terms. Although a June 19, 2009 presidential pardon
released many, local human rights groups maintain that 17 opposition
supporters remain imprisoned on politically-motivated charges.
Soon after the March events the police dismissed several top officials,
although none was charged in relation to the violence.
Officials claimed to have opened 200 internal inquiries into police
conduct, and four police officers have been charged in two separate
cases for excessive use of force. As of this writing the trial was
ongoing.
In September, a parliamentary commission investigating the March
2008 events and dominated by the ruling party concluded that despite
isolated incidents of excessive force, law enforcement actions were
legitimate and adequate. A separate fact-finding working group, with
opposition participation, was dismissed by President Serj Sargsian
in June.
Freedom of Assembly
Armenian authorities continue to restrict freedom of assembly by
frequently banning rallies from taking place, usually on technical
grounds. Of 84 times when opposition groups lodged notification
of plans to hold demonstrations and rallies in 2009, only 28 were
allowed to proceed. Opposition parties allege particular difficulties
in securing meeting venues for indoor events.
In July, three youth opposition activists, Tigran Arakelian, Sahak
Muradyan and Herbert Gevorgyan, were hospitalized after persons
they believed to be plain-clothed security officials attacked them
in downtown Yerevan. The activists were publicizing a rally for the
opposition Armenian National Congress. Arakelian was later charged
with hooliganism and grave abuse against law enforcement officials and
held in pre-trial custody, but released in October pending the trial.
In September Gevorgyan was convicted on charges of minor bodily injury
and sentenced to one year in prison and fined, but was subsequently
amnestied. As of this writing, Muradyan was under investigation on
hooliganism charges.
Freedom of Expression
Media freedoms in Armenia remain restricted, and several journalists
have been attacked for their work in 2009. The assailants have not
been identified and held accountable. On May 6, 2009 two unknown
assailants attacked Nver Mnatsakanian, an anchor for the private
television station Shant, near his home after work. A week earlier,
Argishti Kvirikian, editor for the Armenia Today online news agency,
was attacked in similar circumstances and hospitalized with severe
injuries. On November 17, 2008, an unknown assailant attacked Edik
Baghdasarian, the editor of the online newsmagazine Hetq and chairman
of the Investigative Journalists’ Association. He was hospitalized
with a concussion. No arrests have been made in any of these cases.
In April 2009, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE) Representative on Freedom of Media, Miklos Haraszti,
urged the authorities to swiftly investigate the attacks.
In June 2008 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Armenia
had violated Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights
(guaranteeing freedom of expression) in relation to its regulation
of the independent broadcast company A1+. The court held that laws
regulating the awarding of broadcast licenses failed to protect against
arbitrary government interference and that denials of a license to A1+
were unlawful. Despite this, A1+ had made over a dozen unsuccessful
attempts to regain a license since going off the air in 2002. In
September 2008, the National Assembly amended the law on television and
radio to suspend all licensing until a digital switchover scheduled
for 2010 occurs. These amendments were seen as a further attempt to
deny A1+ a license.
In April, 2009, the Armenian parliament adopted a set of amendments
to broadcasting laws. Some of them were seen as progressive, including
those that ensure greater transparency regarding approval for broadcast
licenses. However, the amendments failed to ensure political and
ideological pluralism of the licensing body, the Council for Public
Television and Radio, whose members are appointed by the president.
Torture and Ill-Treatment
Torture and ill-treatment in custody is widely reported by local civil
society groups in Armenia. The government fails to ensure meaningful
investigations into and accountability for those abuses. As noted
above, many of the opposition supporters detained following the March
2008 events alleged physical abuse during apprehension, transfer to
police station, and in detention. The Helsinki Association of Armenia
reported at least four cases of torture of opposition supporters
in custody in 2009 related to the investigation into the March
2008 events.
One of the most egregious cases of death in custody in 2007, allegedly
due to torture, concerned Levon Gulyan, who died in custody after
police arrested and interrogated him in May 2007. In 2008 a court
ordered that the investigation into Gulyan’s death be reopened, but
in April 2009, prosecutors closed the case again. The authorities
allege that while being held for questioning, Gulyan jumped from
a second-story window of a police station while trying to escape,
a claim denied by Gulyan’s relatives who believe he was tortured.
Attacks on human rights defenders
Official harassment and attacks on human rights defenders in Armenia
often go unpunished. While monitoring the May 2009 Yerevan City
Council elections, Arshaluys Hakobian of the Helsinki Association
of Armenia was expelled from a polling station. A few days after
filing a complaint about this incident with the authorities, police
appeared at his home to summon him for questioning. After an argument
over his signature on the summons, police arrested Hakobian for
allegedly resisting authority. Hakobian alleged he had been beaten
and ill-treated in custody. Although he had filed a complaint and
testified to his ill-treatment during his September 2009 trial on the
charges of resisting authority, the police failed to comprehensively
investigate the claim.
In November 2008, Mariam Sukhidian, whose activism primarily relates
to environmental concerns, publicized on national television a program
about the case of two girls who alleged sexual harassment at their
Yerevan school. Police charged Sukhidian with falsely reporting a
crime. Human rights activists believe the charges are designed to
intimidate Sukhidian in retaliation for her environmental work.
In May 2008 the chairman of the Armenian Helsinki Association, Mikael
Danielyan, was wounded when an assailant shot him from a pneumatic
gun, following an argument while both men were stopped at a traffic
light. It was reported that the assailant was a former leader of
the Armenian Progressive Party. A criminal investigation into the
attack was halted the second time in April 2009, allegedly for lack
of criminal intent. Danielyan’s appeal against the decision to close
the investigation was still pending at this writing.
Access to Controlled Medicines
In its resolution 12/24 on "Access to medicine in the context of
the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable
standard of physical and mental health," the Human Rights Council
encouraged states to consider including in their national reports
to the Universal Periodic Review mechanism information on measures
taken to promote access to medicines.
Armenia’s low consumption of morphine and other opioid medicines,
reported annually to the International Narcotics Control Board,
indicates that access to medicine for pain treatment is very
limited.[3] Although morphine is safe, effective, and inexpensive,
Armenia’s consumption of morphine and alternative strong opioid
medicines is sufficient to provide pain treatment to less than a
quarter of its terminal cancer patients.[4] As these medicines are
also used to provide pain treatment for non-terminal cancer patients,
people living with HIV/AIDS and patients with pain from surgery,
injuries and other diseases, an estimate can be made that each year,
thousands of people suffer from untreated moderate to severe pain.[5]
Recommendations
Regarding election-related and post-election violence and
accountability for excessive use of force, the Armenian government
should be urged to:
â~@¢Implement all outstanding recommendations from the reports of the
Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE/ODIHR) on its observation
of Armenian elections, including its final report on the February 19,
2008 presidential election; â~@¢Ensure a thorough, independent, and
transparent investigation into the excessive use of force by police on
March 1, 2008 and into ill-treatment of detainees by police officials
during the subsequent arrests and detentions. Such an investigation
should comply with international standards and be capable of leading
to the prosecution of abusive law enforcement officials.
Regarding freedom of assembly, the Armenian government should be
urged to:
â~@¢Ensure that no arbitrary impediments are imposed on exercising
the right to freedom of assembly; â~@¢Investigate all allegations
of attacks on peaceful demonstrators and hold the perpetrators
accountable.
Regarding freedom of expression, the Armenian government should be
urged to:
â~@¢Thoroughly and promptly investigate all attacks on journalists
and hold perpetrators accountable; â~@¢Implement the European Court
of Human Rights judgement which found the government’s denial of a
license to A1+, an independent broadcasting company, a violation of
Armenia’s human rights obligations.
Regarding torture and ill-treatment, the Armenian government should
be urged to:
â~@¢Ensure that allegations of torture and inhuman and degrading
treatment are investigated promptly and efficiently and that
perpetrators are brought to justice.
Regarding official harassment and attacks on human rights defenders,
the Armenian government should be urged to:
â~@¢Conduct prompt and thorough investigations into all allegations
of harassment and attacks against human rights defenders and bring
perpetrators to justice.
Regarding the right to access to controlled medicines, the Armenian
government should be urged to:
â~@¢Examine the reasons for its inadequate consumption of opioid
medicines for pain treatment and develop a plan of action to improve
access.
[1] For more details, please see
violence-polling-stations-mars-elections.
[2] For more details, please see
racy-rocky-ground-0.
[3] International Narcotics Control Board, Narcotic Drugs: Estimated
World Requirements for 2009 – Statistics for 2007, E/F/S.09.XI.02
(New York: United Nations, 2009), pp. 219, 260. In 2007, the most
recent year for which data are available, Armenia consumed 4kg of
morphine, 8g of fentanyl, and no other strong opioids.
[4] Human Rights Watch calculates that all of the morphine and
fentanyl consumed in Armenia in 2007 was sufficient to provide adequate
treatment to about 23% of Armenia’s terminal cancer patients.
The calculation is based on the following: WHO statistics indicate
that at approximately 4400 people die of cancer in Armenia each year
(World Health Organization Statistical Information System (WHOSIS)
(accessed July 15, 2009));
one authoritative study estimates that 80 percent of terminal cancer
patients and 50 percent of terminal HIV/AIDS patients will develop
moderate to severe pain symptoms, on average for a period of about 90
days, requiring treatment with 60 to 75 milligrams of morphine per
day, or an equivalent dose of another opioid (K. M. Foley, et al.,
"Pain Control for People with Cancer and AIDS," in Disease Control
Priorities in Developing Countries, 2nd ed., (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2003), 981â~@~P994).
[5] According to UNAIDS, in 2007 there were approximately 2400 people
living with HIV/AIDS in Armenia and as many as 200 AIDS deaths: 2008
Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic (Geneva: UNAIDS, 2008), pp. 219,
222. Thousands more people suffer injuries (WHOSIS) or have pain from
non-terminal cancer or other diseases.