On October 15th, the Public Monitoring Group on detention facilities of the RA Police released its 2012 annual monitoring report at a public presentation, which brought together top ranked representatives from the RA police department and civil society human rights defenders to discuss the state of Armenia’s pre-trial detention facilities and ways to guarantee fundamental human rights and freedoms in the police system. This is the 6th annual monitoring report, based on the group’s scheduled and unscheduled site visits, interviews with detainees and expert opinion.
The event was moderated by Artur Sakunts of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office, with opening remarks from Hasmik Sahakyan of The Boundaries of Our Rights NGO, who the need to expand the mandate of the monitoring group in order to be able to address the human rights violations in the police system. Avetik Ishkhanyan of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia continued, by presenting the current problems, and stressed the lack of progress over the past 6 years of monitoring in many key areas, from poor detention facilities to continuing instances of torture.
The findings and recommendations of the 2012 report were presented by members of the monitoring group, Nelli Harutyunyan, Artur Harutyunyan, Araik Harutyunyan, and Ani Buniatyan. The results of the monitoring show that the rights of persons kept at detention facilities are primarily violated by investigators at different phases of the police system – from apprehension up to arrest or detention of a person. There have been numerous cases of investigators conducting irregular work that results in an individual’s detention for longer than 72 hours, violating the RA legislation. At all detention facilities the right to communication with the outer world was violated. The right to access to a lawyer was applied only among 10.4% of detainees. Poor sanitary-hygienic and living conditions were registered, including pre-used bed-linens, anti-hygienic toilets, and poor lighting.
Representatives of the police department welcomed the monitoring group’s report and expressed their general desire to take their observations and recommendations into account. They insisted that many of the problems are in fact being addressed in the criminal code reforms process.
Finally, Tigran Yegoryan from the Europe in Law NGO spoke about the challenges in protecting the rights of detainees during the investigations and litigations process. He explained that increasingly, arrests and detentions, especially in administrative violations, are being used for political reasons, such as the temporary clearing of a protest or as an intimidation tactic.
The full report can be accessed here.
The Public Monitoring Group on detention facilities was founded in 2005, with the purpose of monitoring the general conditions of facilities, and detecting cases of inhuman treatment and tortures. The group is composed of representatives from 11 different civil society organizations engaged in protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms. To learn more about the group, please visit their website at www.policemonitoring.org