Path of Law

STATEMENT

Numerous residents of the Syunik region of Armenia have been applying to “Path of Law” NGO, informing that today they have been receiving notifications from the police about having been subjected to administrative liability for participation in the protests taken place on 24 May, 2020, in the city of Kapan. It turns out that dozens of residents are being subjected to administrative liability for expressing their complaints with respect to documented cases of torture taken place at the police station, under the pretext that, for 70 days now, under the legal regime of the state of emergency in the Republic of Armenia, the freedom of peaceful assemblies has been forbidden.

With this being said:

(1) We reaffirm our consistent stance that the total ban on peaceful assemblies has already become an illegal measure, and the application of this ban to citizens who have serious reasons to express their complaints cannot be legitimate.

(2) We reaffirm our petition of 15 May, 2020, addressed to opposition deputies of the National Assembly, demanding the latter to challenge the total ban on freedom of peaceful assemblies, in accordance with the procedure established by the Constitution․

(3) We express our willingness to represent the interests of all citizens who have participated at the protests taken place in Kapan on 24 May, 2020, free of charge in the judicial system of Armenia, as well as at the European Court of Human Rights, in order to substantiate the gross violations of the rights of those persons and to return the constitutional freedom of assemblies to the citizens of the Republic of Armenia.