Silence vs. human rights violations in Armenia
By Jamila Babayeva
The Armenian ombudsman office decided to mark December 10, the Human Rights Day, with silence since it speaks of human rights all year round.
The true assessment of the situation came from Armenian human rights defenders and parliamentarians, who said human rights protection is rather poor, directly blaming the country's incumbent political system.
In the background of silence, this assessment clearly reflects the real situation of human rights protection in Armenia from the inside.
"All rights that are included in the European Convention on Human Rights are violated in Armenia," Armenian human rights defenders said. "The right to fair elections and civil rights in voting, which is one of the most important tasks, is also violated, and everything follows from that."
Human rights defenders noted that Armenians do not enjoy social protection. "The more money you have, the more patronage you enjoy from the national authorities and the more protected you are."
They also highlighted the efforts of authorities in filed of human rights protection.
"We all witnessed how the authorities violated people's rights to hold rallies and processions on December 2," they said. "The conduct of the country's authorities was more than surprising, as the right to freedom of expression was violated by groundless and violent means. There is nothing positive in the filed of human rights protection in Armenia, as the people do not have any value for the country's authorities".
The international community is also critical of this crucially important component of society for democratic countries. The U.S. State Department and Human Rights Watch regularly states serious shortcomings in the field of human rights protection in Armenia in its reports.
"The most important problems in the field of human rights in Armenia in 2012 were restrictions on the rights of citizens to change their government, corruption and lack of transparency in government, and the limited independence of the judiciary," the reports underlined.
Armenia violates all the rights of not only its citizens, but also more than one million Azerbaijanis who became refugees and IDPs as a result of the armed aggression against Azerbaijan. Armenia continues its occupation policy against Azerbaijan by violating all international norms of human rights protection.
Moldova's ombudsman Aurelia Grigoriu, whose rights were violated in Armenia in summer 2013, said "human rights are not respected in this county".
"Armenia is putting its purely national interests above the canons of European values, thus breaking democratic principles and human rights," she said. "Armenia should take effective measures to respect human rights, implement the UN resolutions, and respect the territorial integrity of another member of the UN - Azerbaijan."
The European Union recently called on the Armenian government to ensure human rights.
"We call on the Armenian government to ensure rights of representatives of civil society and human rights defenders, particularly women's rights," EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele underscored after an annual session of the EU-Armenia Cooperation Council.
Despite protests and statements about violation of human rights, Armenia's authorities accept neither criticism, nor appeals of international community. The situation is tough, and will tend to remain tough in future if the Human Rights Defender - Ombudsman- prefers to keep silent when he should speak up.