On December 1 the Law Development and Protection Foundation held a discussion on the topic “The Issues of Judicial Scrutiny and External Independent Control over Secret Surveillance Measures.” The scope of judicial scrutiny in authorisation of secret surveillance measures, the content of authorisations, and the urgent procedure were in the limelight of the discussion. In addition to that, the international good practice and trends, as well as issues pertaining to external control in the Armenian context were presented.
The members of the National Assembly, the representatives of the executive authority, law enforcement bodies, Human Rights Defender’s office, Constitutional Court and civil society organisations, as well as attorneys participated in the event.
Genya Petrosyan, director of the LDPF, welcomed the participants to the discussion and touched upon the main aspects of the issue and the LDPF’s approaches in this regard. Antje Fritz, Deputy Head of Operations Europe and Central Asia at DCAF-Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance gave a welcome speech and introduced the DCAF’s activities in the security sector.
Davit Gyurjyan, senior legal expert of the LDPF, and Genya Petrosyan, Director of the LDPF, presented the topic titled “The Scope of Judicial Scrutiny in Authorisation of Secret Surveillance Measures. The content of authorisations and the urgent procedure.” Afterwards, Dr Teodora Fuior, senior expert from Europe and Central Asia Division, DCAF-Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance gave a speech on the international good practice, trends, and issues in judicial authorisation, and review of secret surveillance. “Issues of External Independent Control in the Armenian context” were touched upon by Tatev Khachatryan, Rule of Law and Human Rights Programs Coordinator at the Open Society Foundations-Armenia.
The meeting is part of the project titled “Analysis of the Judgements of the European Court of Human Rights finding Violation of Article 8 of the ECHR” which aims at revealing systemic problems in the implementation of general obligations deriving from Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in the field of conducting operational intelligence activities, as well as selected components of the right to respect for private and family life, including remedies for victims of violations.
Genya Petrosyan, director of the LDPF, informed that the final report of the project and the respective findings will be published and discussed in December in the framework of the multi-stakeholder discussion.
The project is implemented with the support of the Open Society Foundations-Armenia. The meeting is organized in cooperation with the DCAF-Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance.
