The Human Rights Defender’s Office has issued a statement.
1) From the very beginning of the rallies in Yerevan, the staff of the Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia attentively follows the process.
An emergency schedule has been set, working groups have been formed, which, according to professional orientation, carry out round-the-clock monitoring of the assemblies, as well as visits to the participants of the gatherings, the facts of isolation of participants by the police as well as monitoring both media publications and social network.
2) It is important to note that the organizers and participants of the rally should act according to the principles of preventing undue restrictions of the rights of others.
3) Throughout the day, the Ombudsman’s Staff has collected and analyzed the facts of the use of special means by the police during the rallies, their publications, as well as cases directly reported by the Defender’s representatives at the place of their application.
Based on this information, a separate discussion procedure has been initiated. All materials available to the Defender’s Staff will be sent to the Prosecutor’s Office for the purpose of carrying out verification activities. In this regard there is an urgent necessity to start a legal procedure.
4) Information about the victims of the assault and the policemen is particularly concerning. They should be examined in strict compliance with the relevant international rules.
An incident between protesters and citizens dissatisfied with their actions at the intersection of Koryun-Heratsi Street in Yerevan is also concerning. In this regard, we expect clarification of the Police.
5) We attach special importance to the constant appeal and exhortation of MP of the National Assembly, Nikol Pashinyan and other speakers during the gathering to avoid the violence and maintain the peaceful nature of the gathering.
The importance of these calls is also conditioned by the fact that some of the social network users’ comments and commentaries have been documented by hate speech and violence.
6) At the moment, normal media activity is also important. Therefore, the professionalism of journalists is a matter of particular concern to the Defender’s staff. For this purpose, a separate monitoring is carried out. Today information on the damage of the operator of electronic media agency factor.am and damage to the equipment will also be sent to the law enforcement authorities.
7) The competent state authorities, in turn, should provide public with information on the gathering of their actions, participants of the gathering and the measures taken to verify them.
Information received from official sources is an important guarantee to avoid the dissemination of inaccurate information and possible panic situations. This is also important from the point of view of confidence towards these bodies.
