Path of Law

Statement on Bringing the Participants of the Protest Action in Kapan to Administrative Responsibility

Many residents of the Syunik region applied to the Path of Law, a non-governmental human rights organization, informing that, today, they receive notifications from the police about being held administratively liable for participating in the protest action that took place on May 24 in the city of Kapan.

            In fact, dozens of citizens are being held administratively liable for peacefully protesting against a documented case of torture in the police under the pretext that the legal regime of the state of emergency in the Republic of Armenia, which has entirely prohibited the freedom of peaceful assembly in Armenia for 70 days under the legal state of emergency.

We:

• reiterate our consistent position that a complete ban on peaceful assembly has already turned intoan illegal measure, and the application of this ban to citizens with substantial grounds for complaint cannot be legal;

• reaffirm our petition of May 15, addressed to the opposition deputies of the National Assembly, demanding to challenge the total ban on freedom of peaceful assembly in accordance with the procedure established by the Constitution.

• We express our readiness to represent the interests of all citizens who took part in the protest in Kapan on May 24, free of charge, in order to justify the gross violations of the rights of these persons and return the constitutional freedom of assembly to the citizens of the Republic of Armenia.