Court has recognized the convict’s right to visit their place of residence in order to see their minor child

The "CSO Meter Armenia 2024" report has been published, presenting developments, challenges, and recommendations in various areas of the civic space in 2024. The overall assessment of the civil society environment in Armenia remains unchanged compared to 2023, while priority issues and challenges persist. It should be noted that the draft report was presented to the stakeholders at the end of the year, and the feedback received was incorporated into the final version. This research is part of the “CSO Meter: Empowered for Action” project, implemented with financial support from the European Union, in collaboration with ECNL and partner organizations in the Eastern Partnership countries.

The Law Development and Protection Foundation has developed a game titled “The Right for Everyone” aimed at raising the awareness of the citizens, providing knowledge about human rights and the protection mechanisms thereof , as well as on the civic engagement. The game is intended for all citizens, especially for the high-school students and students not specialized in law.  The game has the following thematic areas: the purpose and role of the human rights, the fundamental values of democracy, human rights and their protection mechanisms, the functions of the state and civil society institutes, parties, civic movements in the domain of human rights, elections, branches of Government, and administrative, civic (family and labor law), and criminal procedures.

Several months ago, the Law Development and Protection Foundation filed an electronic petition requesting full publicity of the proceedings in the administrative court. As informed by the Ministry of Justice, the recommendation made in the petition has been included in the package of draft laws on “Making Amendments and Supplements to the Civic Procedure Code of the RA” and “Making Amendments and Supplements to the Administrative Procedure Code of the RA.”

The Draft Law on Ensuring Equality and Protection Against Discrimination (Draft Law) addresses the legislative gaps related to effective protection against discrimination. It defines various forms of discrimination and stipulates the establishment of an Equality Council, adjunct to the Human Rights Defender’s Office, which will include representatives from CSOs and independent professionals. The draft law sets several protection grounds; however it fails to address the legal protection of persons discriminated on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, one of the most sensitive issues. In addition, the draft law does not define possibilities for CSOs to take legal action in courts (‘actio popularis’) to protect the rights of victims of discrimination.

On 2 July, after half a year of appeals, the court granted our beneficiary's claim. It obliged the penitentiary to abolish the violation of the convicted person's right to visit their minor child, i.e., the institution is obliged to ensure that the person has the opportunity to travel to their permanent residence for the period prescribed by law (up to 10 days) to visit the minor child. Davit Gyurjyan, the attorney leading the case, states that the case is of great significance for changing and developing law enforcement practice, as the regulation foreseeing the travel of convicted parents to minor children for up to 10 days is not implemented in practice. Furthermore, the convicted person is only permitted to leave the prison for a short period in exceptional cases, such as death of a close relative or serious illness.

On February 26, 2024, the Ministry of High-Technology Industry released a draft of a new law “On Public Information” as well as amendments and additions to related laws, for public discussion. According to the government, this law will serve as a basis of implementing open data policy, and in particular, enable public oversight over the performance of state and local self-government bodies. The new draft defines: the conditions and procedure for providing public information; the methods of ensuring access to public information and managing its usage; and how to regulate the collection, processing, use of information, establishment of databases and their management.

The Administrative Court of the RA satisfied the claim of the Transparency International Armenia NGO against the Staff of The National Assembly, recognizing not legitimate the latter’s activity to refuse the participation of the plaintiff’s representative as an observer at the interview stage of the competition for the vacancy of the member of the Corruption Prevention Commission. The TI claimed that its rights to seek and receive information, guaranteed by the RA Constitution, had been violated as its right to conduct observation mission over the contest had been restricted. Genya Petrosyan, Davit Gyurjyan, and Sergey Grigoryan, lawyers and attorneys at the Law Development and Protection Foundation represented the TI in the court.