Armenian authorities resort to ‘unconstitutional methods’ to isolate high court– opnion

With their agenda of constitutional reforms, the Armenian authorities are practically pursuing a plan to isolate the top court from the entire process by pushing ahead with an unconstitutional draft law, according Siranush Sahakyan, a co-founder of the Legal Path NGO.

In an interview with Tert.am, the lawyer particularly stressed the absence of specific justifications to outlline the real obstacles necessitating the change.

“The Constitutional Court which, under the 2015 Constitution[al amendments], has a pivotal role in determining the constitutionality of constitutional reforms, is now practically being isolated under the recently proposed legislative changes. They [the authorities] are thus making an attempt to isolate the Constitutional Court from the process of amending the Constitution, pushing ahead with an unconstitutional legal measure,” she said.

Sahakyan noted that the Constitutution of Armenia has vested the Court with the power to evaluate, and check the compliance of, any proposed amendment with international treaties.

“In certain matters, subjects may decide, at their own discretion, whether or not to apply to the Constitutional Court, but for a range of limited matters addressing, for instance, territorial changes, international treaties and the draft constitutional amendments, a compulsory oversight mechanism has been envisaged. With the legislative changes standing in stark contrast to the constitutional solutions, we now see that they are trying to eliminate this authority of the Constitutional Court, citing the National Assembly’s discretionary power in terms of  applying to the top court. We may be facing a process worse than this in the future, with the Government insisting on its discretionary power to apply to the Constitutional Court (when it comes to international treaties). What’s even worse is the possible interpretation of discretionary authority with respect to territorial changes as well,” she noted.

Sahakyan said she finds the proposed changes “politcally motivated”, noting that the legal processes per se focus on an unconditional respect for human rights institutions. “With the human rights insittutions being isolated from the processes, we are practically dealing with political processes in essence,” she said, highlighting also visible attempts to subordinate the judiciary to the executive authroties.

“The Constitutional Court is facing continuing pressure as we see no concesssions by the ruling regime. What they need is to strengthen their set of tools to eventually undermine and subordinate the Constituional Court,” she added.