EVERYTHING WAS DONE WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THE CONSTITUTION
- Interview with Justice Minister GEVORG DANIELYAN, Second-Class State Advisor of Justice
“Some people currently announce that by declaring a state of emergency, the President of the republic violated our country’s Constitution and the norms of international law. Does such allegation have anything to do with the reality?”
“It is a barefaced statement. Moreover, by distorting the facts, they insisted the competent international bodies were the authors of such statements. Let’s note that there are certain constitutional norms underlying the decree. First, Article 44 of the Constitution authorizes the President to restrict, in a manner presribed by law, separate human and civil rights and freedoms during the state of emergency. In the meantime, exceptions are only envisaged for the rights and freedoms enshrined in Articles 15, 17-22 and 42. And let’s note that the decree contains no provision with regard to these rights and freedoms.
No law on the legal regime of the state of emergency has been adopted yet; however, Section 6 of Article 117 of the Constitution clearly states that ‘Before the definition of the legal regime of the state of emergency by law in the event of an imminent danger to the constitutional order the President of the Republic after consulting with the Chairman of the National Assembly and the Prime Minister, shall take measures appropriate in the given circumstances and address the people on the situation.”
As regards the international documents, Article 15 of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms makes it clear that the above-mentioned institution is recognized and used internationally. Article 44 literally repeats the relevant provision of the Convention.
By the way, regrettable though it is, we know many examples from the history of our country when a state of emergency was declared without constitutional bases. Thus, in the period between 1991 and 1996, a state of emergency was declared throughout the republic six times, based on Clause 15, Article 8 of the RA Law on the RA President (the law is no longer in effect). They were, as a rule, accompanied by imposing curfews; such practice was still up-to-date in those days and was automatically preserved from the Soviet times.
Speaking about restrictions, let's recall that in order to do that it was not frequently required to resort to the institution of the state of emergency. Everything was done in accordance with the rules characteristic of the Soviet legal regime, in strict observance of the former traditions.
In this respect, the decree on the ‘Temporary termination of the activity of ‘Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun’ public-political organization”, adopted on December 28, 1994 and entered into force on the same date, is characteristic. If you think that there is at least one legislative norm underlying it, you are sadly mistaken. The decree is unique in terms of its kind and does not have its precedent in the history of law, as it contains absolutely no reference to any legal act.
That’s to say, in the atmosphere of impunity, no steps were taken towards the establishment of formal bases. Furthermore, the conversation is about a decree terminating the activity of a political party. Unfortunately, the examples are not few in number, but luckily they are in the past.”
“The March 1 decree on declaring a state of emergency and the March 11 decree on introducing amendments thereto contain some restrictions regarding the media. There are still speculations over the fact that such restrictions were in breach of the Constitution of Armenia and the international instruments on human rights and especially, freedom of speech. Were there really such breaches?”
“Touching upon this question, I refer to the above-mentioned Articles of the Constitution. In terms of its legal bases, the decree is invulnerable. Those speculating the issue ignore the fact that there were and there still are sufficient legal bases for restricting the right and that under the well-known international norms the right to freedom of speech is not absolute; it is also subject to restrictions. In the meantime, it was also clear that the goal of the restriction was to keep the public from provocative information, and this was done with state security considerations.
The fact that one can hardly ever meet examples of the restriction of freedom of speech in the EU member states is often discussed. We’ll soon introduce the experience of those countries on one occasion, and it will become clear that they are more consistent in terms of protecting state security and envisage incomparably stricter punitive measures for such abuses of freedom of speech that violate those values.
I deem it necessary to underline that the security of the country and the state, as well as respect for the rights of others are not abstract notions. It is not allowed to make populist statements on democracy, by violating those values.
- ARTHUR HOVHANNISYAN
Discussion
Rafael wrote:
These continuous illegal arrests are a shame and distort the image of Armenia in the international community
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- 1827 General Ivan Paskevich is appointed Governor of the Caucasus and Commander of the Caucasian Special Corps.
- 1830 Birth of organist, conductor, teacher, and public figure, Anton Mayilian in Tbilissi.
- 1907 Birth of surgeon Ivan Gevorgian. He invented pain-killers and pioneered new ways for blood transfusion.
- 1920 The Drama Institute presents its first play.
- 1923 Birth of two-time hero and pilot Nelson Stepanian. The group of pilots led by Nelson Stepanian sank more than 50 enemy ships and destroyed 13 airplanes in World War Two. Nelson Stepanian flew 240 sorties. He died in a dogfight in 1944.
- 1928 Birth of artist and sculptor Ara Harootoonian. His great architectural work is the Sardarapat complex.
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