The action plan stemming from the Judicial and Legal Reform Strategy 2019-2023 envisages the establishment of a Fact-Finding Commission, including the development and submission of a draft law on its formation and activities to the National Assembly in 2019-2020, having previously discussed it with civil society actors.
Iravaban.net talked about the topic with the President of the “Center for Economic Rights” NGO Movses Aristakesyan, a member of Governing Board of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia and Head of the Transitional Justice Committee of the Coalition, who expressed his opinion on the work done, their progress and the role of civil society organizations in the field.
– Mr. Aristakesyan , unfortunately during the mentioned period no such draft law or package of drafts was submitted to the government , further to the National Assembly and therefore the Government, on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, failed to fulfill this important strategic commitment. What can you say about this?
– In fact, the current political authorities are not able to consistently fulfill the demands adopted by their government. In my opinion, this is due to several circumstances, the most important of which is the political interest. I should mention that even in this government program, which was introduced for 5 years, there is not even a word about creating such a group. I think the authorities should try to fulfill their obligations to the people under the pressure of civil society. After all, during the “velvet revolution”, as well as in August 2018, Nikol Pashinyan publicly announced that there would be a vetting and fact-finding group within the framework of transitional justice. We, both our coalition and individual NGOs, have called for the formation of this group. We also suggested our cooperation to create documents provided by law. Moreover, our organization and the committee led by me submitted a grant program to the Eurasia Foundation to help the government prepare all the necessary documents, but unfortunately it was not approved.
– The Judicial and Legal Reform Strategy envisages that a Fact-Finding Commission will be formed in the first quarter of 2020 to investigate cases of violations in Armenia during 1991-2018 and collect information on them. The Commission will consist of a maximum of 20 members, the term of which is two years, with the possibility of extending the term for another year if necessary.No Fact-Finding Commission was formed during the mentioned period. What is the reason, why was it not formed, what is your assessment?
– It is political irresponsibility within the framework of the promises made to the people and consistent non-fulfillment of the laws. This is my political assessment of this issue. We expected that the Commission would be formed by March 2020, but no steps were taken to comply with the law. We do not even know when they plan to work in that direction. And the work of this Fact-Finding Commission is very important, because there are many people who have accumulated materials about the crimes committed during the target period, and there were eyewitnesses who can present the crimes committed with their memories and facts. All this would help the political authorities in their promise to return the loot to the budget penny by penny, but there is no initiative by the political authorities in this direction.
Unfortunately, I have to say that even in the case of gathering information about these crimes; the authorities today allow similar crimes.
I should also mention that the 2-year term provided by law is very short for that Commission. We criticized this because it is impossible to collect facts in the period of 2 years, to report on what happened in 30 years and pass it to the relevant law enforcement agencies.
– As you have already mentioned, the action plan stemming from the Judicial and Legal Reform Strategy envisages that the Fact-Finding Commission will publish a report as a result of its work. Based on the summary of this report, measures will be taken to restore the rights of victims of Violations. Please provide your opinion on this issue. Do you think it is possible that such a commission will eventually be formed, as a result of which the rights of the victims of the violations in Armenia in 1991-2018 will be restored, as well as institutional reforms will be carried out?
– As the current political events show, the current political authorities do not have such an initiative. It seems that after the fiery promises of the “velvet revolution”, the current political authorities have lost the desire to fulfill that commitment. I do not hope that this Fact-Finding Group will be formed. This is evidenced by the cases initiated by the prosecutor’s office and the investigative group, their sluggishness and inefficiency in examining the cases.
If a Commission is not formed, it is clear that the remaining actions will not be taken.
