The public posts of officials which insult the Human Rights Defender in connection with the exercise of his powers and which openly exhibit disrespect, will be forwarded to the Republic of Armenia (RA) General Prosecutor’s Office. The RA Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan wrote on his Facebook page.
- Posts with such content started yesterday, in 2021. The Human Rights Defender issued a statement on the incident between the Minister of High Technology of the Republic of Armenia Hakob Arshakyan and journalist Paylak Fahradyan on March 18, 2021, condemning the violence against a journalist working professionally, especially by an official.
Moreover, the Defender’s statement yesterday did not mention the rules, which are enshrined in international documents and rooted in years of international practice, and which the Republic of Armenia has undertaken to guarantee.
- Immediately after the Human Rights Defender’s announcement, a large-scale campaign in support of the Minister of High-Tech Industry started, both on the official social media pages of the Defender’s Office and in the media, and continued throughout the day, mainly the obvious organization of fake pages, replete with insults and hate speech against the ombudsman, as well as openly encouraging commentary including violence against journalists.
The fact that the comments mentioned from the fake accounts are directed is evident from the fact that almost all of them are of the same content, of an openly manipulative nature, with the aim of distorting the content of the Defender’s statement, while at the same time, repeating data published by websites of unknown origin.
- Monitoring of social networks and media has shown insults, hatred, cynicism, and openly disrespectful publications against the Human Rights Defender in connection with the exercise of his powers, and which have been made by various public officials. The issue is rendered more problematic in light of the fact that instances of this nature have been recorded by officials in the past few months (for example, an official of the Market Supervision Inspectorate), and the ill-advised behavior has become a regular practice.
The Human Rights Defender considers the fact that the representatives of the party that forms the highest executive body in Armenia and the ruling faction in the republic’s National Assembly, including a member of the control committee, made similar notes and on the same principle in the context of assessing these vicious phenomena.
- The study found that public officials (for example, the deputy head of the Avan administrative district of Yerevan, the head of the Solak community of the Kotayk region, the former head of the Ajapnyak administrative district, who is currently is a member of the ruling party) as well as a high-ranking official, and an MP of the ruling faction of the RA National Assembly, Nikolay Baghdasaryan.
- The above-mentioned persons should have a high commitment and sensitivity for their own behavior, show restraint, promote solidarity by their own example, and show high respect for human rights.
- These posts and their approvals justify the use of violence against a citizen by a public official, and more so, a high-ranking public official, with a profoundly wrong propaganda; and, do not take into account the specific parameters of journalistic work and the limits of an official’s public mandate, accountability and responsibility.
It is particularly troubling when a post promoting violence is publicly endorsed by a high-ranking official.
Therefore, such actions by these individuals are absolutely reprehensible and violate the integrity of their official status.
- Today, one of the posts with obvious cynicism about the Human Rights Defender, authored by a member of the above-mentioned party’s supervisory committee, was widely covered by almost all media outlets and caused a public discussion with the very perception that it is blatantly disrespectful and insulting to the Defender.
This has greatly contributed to the spread of misconceptions about the functions of the Defender’s Office.
- Unfortunately, all of the above-mentioned records also indicate that their authors have a basic ignorance of the constitutional functions of the Human Rights Defender.
Therefore, a targeted awareness campaign on the Ombudsman’s constitutional functions will be launched in the near future.
- We especially remind you that according to Article 193 of the RA Constitution, state and local self-government bodies and officials are obliged to support the Human Rights Defender. This obligation is also enshrined in Article 9 of the Constitutional Law on the Human Rights Defender.
Therefore, the elimination of obstacles to the work of the Human Rights Office as independent, based solely on apolitical principles, the provision of objective conditions for independent work, and assistance to the Defender is a direct obligation for all officials enshrined in the Constitution and the Constitutional law.
- The Human Rights Defender therefore urges all persons holding public office to recognize their constitutional obligations with respect to human rights and to democratic institutions, as well as the importance and seriousness of their own official status; and, to exclude irresponsible and short-sighted attitude towards the Human Rights Defender institution.
- And at the end, taking into account that the actions of the referenced persons contain features of a crime envisaged by the RA Criminal Code aimed at guaranteeing the activities of the Human Rights Defender, as well as inciting violence and hatred, all these remarks, notations and comments are currently summarized for dispatch to the RA Prosecutor General.
