Armenian authorities abuse legislative ban on peaceful assemblies 'for political reckoning', human rights activist claims

The Armenian authorities are abusing the legislatively prescribed ban on public assemblies for the purpose of silencing the political opponents, the president of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia said today, considering the restrictions imposed on yesterday's protest (in support of the Prosperous Armenia party's leader) disproportionate.

At a public debate entitled "The Coronavirus Crisis: Evaluations and Solutions, Humanitarian and Socio-Economic Impact", Avetik Ishkhanyan said the mitigated lockdown rules "go hand in hand with restrictions on the right to public assembly".

"The right to peaceful assembly, as a human right, is considered a 'queen of rights' given that it encompasses the right to freedom of speech, protests etc. Hence by imposing a ban on the right to peaceful assembly over the past period, the authorities started repressions; you can make no doubt about that. It virtually turns out that we can institute a criminal case against a person, arrest and detain him or her without any right on those people's part to lodge any complaint," he said, noting that at least three poeple protesting individually at Tuesday's public event were taken to a police station (their act not falling under the definition of an assembly).

Ishkhanyan also referred to a UN commissioner's advisory report on the conduct of assemblies and rallies under conditions of the spreading coronavirus pandemic. Drawing comparisons with the situation in Armenia, he cited particularly the inadmissibility of total restrictions on human rights during a state of emergency.

"Any decision by the authorities must receive evaluation by an independent civil society to prevent those laws from serving as a club at the hand of the authorities to [silence] the opposition. It is necessary not to restrict the right to peaceful assembly, to maintain the checks and balances between the judiciary and legislative powers, to authorize strikes whenever the labor rights are violated and to avoid restrictions on the people's opinion behind the mask of 'fake news'. "

"All this seems to be be a message for the authorities of the Republic of Armenia, which have enforced unnecessarily disproportionate restrictions, using the ban on peaceful assembly to oppress opponents and to resort to a political reckoning.

"I think the ban on public assemblies aggravates the spread of the pandemic even more, because if the police avoid any interference, people will voice their protest keeping the necessary distance, whereas the Police are now themselvees 'provoking' the spread of this pandemic," he said, stressing also the importance of proportionate fines.