Expert workshop on Ombudsman draft law held in Armenia

YEREVAN, 5 September 2003 - The draft law on the institution of a Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) was discussed in Armenia's National Assembly on 2 and 3 September. The event was co-organized by the National Assembly, the OSCE Office in Yerevan, the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Council of Europe (CoE).

The main objective of the event was to discuss and amend the existing draft, which was initiated by several parliamentarians in December 2002 and passed its first reading in April 2003. Since the Parliament is going to consider the draft law for the second reading next week, the event was beneficial from the point of view of changes that needed to be made before the second reading, on the basis of the comments made by national and international experts. Members of Parliament, representatives of civil society and international organizations participated in the event.

In the course of the workshop relevant international standards were presented by the ODIHR, while representatives from the Venice Commission and the CoE's Human Rights Directorate, the Polish Ombudsman Institution, and the United Nations Development Programme and UNICEF explained the content of comments they submitted.

The author of the draft, Tigran Torossian, Vice-Speaker of the Armenian parliament, accepted most of the recommendations. The recommendations included to give the Human Rights Defender authority to act on its own initiative, to have him or her elected by three fifths of the members of parliament and to present his or her resignation to the National Assembly and not the President, and to accept anonymous complaints.

In 2001, when Armenia became a full member of the CoE, the establishment of an Ombudsman institution was one of the commitments made by the country. The draft amendments to the Constitution submitted in May 2003 provided for the independence of the institution by giving the latter a constitutional status, allowing for a parliamentary appointment of the Human Rights Defender and mandating the latter to apply to the Constitutional Court.

Since the May 2003 referendum on constitutional amendments failed, it was agreed to have a temporary solution through the adoption of transitional provisions on appointment, which means the appointment of the Human Rights Defender by the President in consultation with political factions of the National Assembly.

According to the author of the draft law, the mandate of the HR Defender appointed by the President would expire one month after the adoption of the amended constitution, and a Human Rights Defender appointed by the National Assembly will be established in full compliance with international standards and best practices. However, several civil society organizations did not share this view and signed a public declaration with a request to the authorities to postpone the adoption of the law until constitutional changes were enacted. In their view, this will provide better guarantees for the independence of the newly created institution, and will add to its credibility in the public eye.