ANNUAL REPORT ON ACTIVITIES OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA'S HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER AND VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS IN ARMENIA 2006 The present "Annual Report for 2006 on Activities of the Republic of Armenia's Human Rights Defender" has been translated and published with the financial support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ISBN 978-99941-0-213-6 ANNUAL REPORT ON ACTIVITIES OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA'S HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER AND VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS IN ARMENIA 2006 Yerevan, 2007 Yerevan 2007 RA Human Rights Defender A. Harutyunyan In the result of constitutional amendments, Human Rights Defender's Office was mandated as a constitutional institution. On February 17, 2005, National Assembly of RA by the votes of more than 3/5 of the total num- ber of deputies elected Doctor of Law, Professor Armen Harutyunyan as a first parliamentary Human Rights Defender of RA. Human Rights Defender is an independent official, whose main mission is to prevent and restore human rights and fundamental freedoms violated by the state and local self-governing bodies or their officials. The letters of complaint, addressed to the Defender, are various and concern almost all spheres of functioning of state and local self-governing bodies. The actuality of the report is determined also by the circumstance that for the first time are sep- arated the analysis of the statutory- legal act that leads to the human rights violations and the analysis of detached provisions, as well as the shortcoming in law enforcement practices. This report aims to raise a list of questions that are peculiar to the post soviet countries and exist in our country. The inattention of these issues can be an obstacle on our way of creation of the democracy and rule of law in our state. TABLE OF CONTENT Introduction............................................................................................................7 Section 1: Main Scope of the Defender's Activities............................................9 1.1 Activities related to registered complaints and those who made them.............9 1.1.1 Statistical analysis of registered complaints...................................................9 1.1.2 Consultations ..................................................................................................17 1.1.3 Receiving complaints .....................................................................................20 1.1.4 Visits and studies ............................................................................................21 1.1.5 Quick response ...............................................................................................23 1.2 Activities to restore human rights......................................................................24 1.2.1 Impact measures applied by human rights defender......................................24 1.2.2 Cases ended up with positive outcomes.........................................................25 1.3 Legislation improvement targeted activities .....................................................26 1.4 Development of information and public relations ............................................29 1.5 Cooperation with non-governmental organizations ..........................................33 1.6 International cooperation...................................................................................35 1.7 Expert council....................................................................................................40 Section 2: Human Rights Violations Arising from Legislative Issues ..............41 2.1 Economic, social and cultural rights .................................................................41 2.1.1 Right to free choice of employment...............................................................41 2.1.2 Right to education...........................................................................................44 2.1.3 Right to property.............................................................................................47 2.1.4 Right to social security...................................................................................50 2.1.5 Right to obtain medical aid and services .......................................................55 2.1.6 Right to an adequate standard of living .........................................................57 2.1.7 Right to live in an environment conducive to one's own health and well-being...............................................................................................59 2.2 Civil and political rights..................................................................................61 2.2.1 Prohibition of torture ......................................................................................61 2.2.2 Right to fair trial.............................................................................................63 2.2.3 Right to personal liberty and security ............................................................65 2.2.4 Right to form associations with others...........................................................68 2.2.5 Right to freedom of speech ............................................................................70 2.2.6 Right to effective legal remedies....................................................................71 2.2.7 Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion...................................72 5 Section 3: Analysis of Human Rights Violations by Public Bodies...................74 3.1 The Police ..........................................................................................................76 3.2 The Prosecution .................................................................................................82 3.3 Courts.................................................................................................................87 3.4 Bodies of the RA Ministry of Justice system....................................................92 3.4.1 Service for Compulsory Execution of Judicial Acts…...……………….…..92 3.4.2 Penitentiary institutions ..................................................................................94 3.5 State Committee of Real Estate Cadastre adjunct to the RA Government.......97 3.6 RA Ministry of Defense ....................................................................................100 3.7 RA Ministry of Labor and Social Issues, RA State Fund of Social Insurance .101 3.8 RA Ministry of Health care and Health care System........................................105 3.9 RA Ministry of Education and Science, educational system ............................108 3.10 Yerevan Mayor's Office...................................................................................110 3.11 District municipalities of Yerevan...................................................................124 3.12 Offices of governors and local self-governing bodies ....................................127 3.13 Other public administration and local self-government bodies ......................135 Section 4: Rights of Special and Vulnerable Groups .........................................139 4.1 Rights of refugees..............................................................................................139 4.2 Rights of national minorities .............................................................................143 4.3 Rights of persons with disabilities ....................................................................144 4.4 Rights of women................................................................................................146 4.5 Rights of children ..............................................................................................147 Annexes...................................................................................................................151 6 INTRODUCTION Paragraph 1 of Article 17 of the Republic of Armenia's (RA) "Law on human rights defender" stipulates that during the first quarter of every year the Defender submits to RA President, legislative, executive and judicial powers a report that documents its activities and details violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the country during the previous year. During the spring session the report is presented to the RA National Assembly, the report is then also presented to media and pertinent non-governmental organizations. The content and structure of the 2006 report reflect the desire to provide the public with a holistic understanding of its activities as well as an informed analy- sis of the country's violations of human and citizen's rights and freedoms. Given that RA is a newly independent state that lacks well-established democratic tradi- tions, the annual analysis of human rights protection and the state of protection receives special attention. Section 1 presents the activities performed by the human rights defender in 2006: activities related to registered complaints and those who made them; activ- ities aimed at the re-establishment of human rights; activities aimed at the improvement of legislation; development of information and public relations; cooperation with non-governmental organizations; international cooperation; activities of the expert council. The following sections of the report provide information about violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms and attempt to identify and comprehen- sively analyze the reasons for those violations. This analysis gives grounds for identifying