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 Mr. Gevorg Manukyan, President of the {Armenian Constitutional Right Protective Center” NGO (ACRPC), a member of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia, who expressed his opinion on the work done.
According to him, it is very important that such a commission be formed.
“The issue that was voiced raised hopes among many. The public thinks that mass human rights violations can be detected, the victims will be compensated, and those guilty will be punished. I estimate there have been about 3 to 4 dozen high-profile murders and assassination attempts over the past 30 years. For example, the cases of Ghandilyan, Yuzbashyan, 27 October and others. These are only the cases of well-known people, but there have been many murders and disappearances that the general public does not know about,” he said.
————
It should be noted that Marius Yuzbashyan was the head of the State Security of Armenia at the time when the Artsakh movement gained momentum. He was killed on 21 June, 1993 in the territory of the Komitas Pantheon in Yerevan. The murder was not revealed.
Hambardzum Ghandilyan was the head of the RA Railway Department, and was killed in 1993.
————
Referring to the Judicial and Legal Reform Strategy 2019-2023, Manukyan said. “In general, the adoption of a law on one commission and its activities is incomprehensible. There is a tendency in our country to regulate every small detail or problem by law. Legal regulations should not try to handle every detail. In other words, the country begins to produce law and the legal system grows enormously, and its implementation becomes inefficient. It is enough to form a commission, for example, by a decision of the government or a ministry, but passing a law is unnecessary.”
In reply to the question why the Fact-Finding Commission has not been formed yet, the President of the NGO answered that one can only make assumptions.
“The Current Government is not inferior to the previous ones in a negative sense, moreover, in some cases it exceeds. First of all, this Government must start eliminating its shortcomings and only then pass on to others.
This Government came with calls for love and tolerance, but today they are completely at the bottom, and that is why they do not do it. If they form a commission that has objectivity and independence, it must first investigate their illegalities and violations in the legislative field..
Even during the previous government, I do not remember such a thing being changed in a few hours in the National Assembly. It was a ridiculous example that in order to get rid of the judges of the Constitutional Court, they passed a law that judges could voluntarily retire early and receive a pension in the amount of salary at the expense of the taxpayer. This left a disgraceful black mark on the legislative activity of this Government,” he said.
Referring to the activities of the Commission, he said, “In world history, for example, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, serious steps were taken in the Baltic States and even the networks of agents who took part in the Stalinist violence were exposed. It is very desirable that we have such a thing as well. Unfortunately, I do not see such a thing on the horizon yet, but all the corruption that has taken place must be disclosed.”
According to Gevorg Manukyan, the members of the commission should be holy people.
“It is important that there are high-ranking clergymen, members of non-politicized and non-non-defamed civil society, historians, scientists and other specialists, but not, for example, ‘pocket’ non-governmental organizations. Very serious preparations are needed: the limits of the powers of the commission, the regulations, etc. There is no need to aggravate, but serious work must be done in this direction for the result to be positive.
In the 1990-s, a law to protect the rights of Stalin’s victims was passed. It was a very simple law, consisting of several articles, which did not give anything in particular; the oppressed were simply informed that they were justified. That is, it was a fictitious thing. If this commission is set up, very serious work must be done and the victims must be compensated and the guilty must be punished. It should not be fictitious,” Manukyan said.
