All citizens must participate in the Referendum on Amendments to the Constitution because it is their mother law and deals with their rights and interests. Lawyer Heriknaz Tigranyan mentioned in her interview to Iravaban.net that the Draft Constitution contains some risks the citizen must consider before saying “yes” or “no”.
According to her, there are improper formulations in the chapter which refers to the human rights, which put under question the issue of the protection of some rights. Particularly, there are some problems concerning the issues of socio-economic rights, institution of fair trial, acceptability of evidence and others.
Speaking about the issue of the changes in the management model, Heriknaz Tigranyan mentions: “We all agree with the fact that the parliamentary model is the most democratic one. But as soon as we see Article 89 of the Draft, which contains the concept of the stable majority in the NA, the hopes of supporters of the parliamentary government vanish: this is not the classical parliamentarianism that we imagine.”
The lawyer also mentions the problems in the judicial system: the judges of the Court of Appeals will be appointed by the NA, which has a stable majority: “This already means that one party can decide who can be a judge in the Court of Appeals.”
On the other hand, it is problematic what the requirements for becoming a judge are: the person may be appointed as a judge in the Court of Appeals after working in any LLC. I think that candidate to a judge at the Court of Appeals must have at least 10 years of experience as a judge.”
There is also no age limitation for the appointment of the judges of First Instance Courts and Courts of Cassation: the graduates may be appointed in the post of the judge and they do not have either professional experience or life experience, which is crucially important for the profession of the judge.
According to her, there are risks in other chapters of the Draft as well.
