CITIZENS DEPRIVED OF LIBERTY SQUARE
Support A1+!The practice of conducting rallies in Armenia showed that demonstrators as a rule are discontent with the authorities. The newly adopted law “On meetings, demonstrations, marches and rallies” sets some places where rallies cannot be conducted.
The list includes all the buildings where the executive bodies sit. But is there any use of conducting a rally in a neutral place? There was no law regulating rallies or marches during the soviet period. The Liberty square in Yerevan has become a symbol of freedom and victory of the Armenian people. Now the law prohibits conduction of rallies near cultural centers. Besides it prohibits to block the roads.
According to human rights advocates the new law violates the principle of balance of law and right. “The limitations fixed in the law do not correspond to the principle of proportion. The law allows the local self-government bodies to bar a rally”, chairman of the Helsinki committee of Armenia Avetik Ishkhanyan says. “It is not a regulating but a forbidding law”, he adds.
He considers that people should possess absolute right to conduct marches and rallies. However, taking into consideration some nuances, certain regulation of this issue is essential. “The issue should be regulated by the law but not by self-willed decision by the executive power”, Avetik Ishkhanyan considers.
He sees two possible solutions of the problem: to introduce changes to the law according to the remarks made by the CE or organize rallies as a protest against the imperfect law.
Lena Badeyan
