Epress.am News from Armenia
More than three years after deadly street clashes between police and opposition protesters left 10 individuals dead, there has been no meaningful accountability for the excessive use of force by law enforcement. The government decriminalized libel, but drastically increased financial penalties in civil libel suits. Authorities continue to restrict freedom of assembly. Torture and ill-treatment in police custody persist and the government has failed to effectively investigate a troubling number of deaths in custody and non-combat deaths in the military. These are some of the major concerns in Armenia raised by Human Rights Watch in its 2012 World Report.
The international human rights watchdog, citing reports by local and international human rights organizations, found that ill-treatment of detained persons in police custody continued, not to mention several unexplained deaths of detainees in custody.
The report also highlighted an “alarming number” of non-combat deaths in the army, as well as ill-treatment and hazing. “The Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly’s Vanadzor Office reported at least 17 non-combat deaths through October 2011,” reads the report, which also cited a case of a senior army official humiliating two conscripts that became known after a video appeared on YouTube (and who was later imprisoned).
On freedom of the media: Human Rights Watch found that though Armenia decriminalized libel in May 2010, amendments to the civil code introduced high monetary fines for libel and defamation which led to an increase in lawsuits against newspapers, “particularly by public officials.” Apart from the increase in lawsuits, lack of media pluralism remains a problem, the human rights group notes, citing the cases of A1+, ALM and GALA TV being denied broadcasting licenses as recent examples.
Interestingly, the report chides not only Armenia authorities, but also international actors for failing to criticize the government’s human rights record and giving the government “undue credit”:
“In its May European Neighborhood Policy progress report, the European Union highlighted Armenia’s lack of judicial independence, limited media pluralism, poor prison conditions, and inadequate investigations into ill-treatment, but stopped short of articulating concrete human rights improvements required as part of its engagement with Armenia’s government.
“In an October 2011 resolution on Armenia’s fulfillment of its obligations as a Council of Europe member, the organization’s Parliamentary Assembly gave the government undue credit by stating, ‘the chapter on the March 2008 events can finally be considered closed.’ The resolution nevertheless reiterated concerns about the lack of accountability for the 10 deaths during the clashes.”