Article 20(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated that "[e]veryone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association"[1] This rights is guaranteed also by many other international treaties, including the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 21)[2], European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Article 11)[3].
Article 29 of the RA Constitution states that "[e]veryone shall have the right to freedom of peaceful and unarmed assembly"[4].
The RA Law on Rallies, Meetings, Marches and Demonstrations is invalid from May 3, 2011 and a new Law on Freedom of Rallies is enforced from April 14, 2011. The new law differentiates rallies of political nature from other types of events. Celebrations, cultural and sport events are not regulated by this law. Another amendment of the law is that even if a peaceful rally is organized without notification of the authorities, the police has not the right of interfering or suppressing it[5].
To hold a public rally, its organizer should notify the authorities in written form, apart from rallies where the participants' number does not exceed 100 people or it is of urgent necessity or spontaneous (Article 9). According to the law, the authorities should send the notification to the police, immediately after registering it, for getting the opinion of the police on the rally.
The freedom of assembly is not absolute and can be limited if the interests of public safety or constitutional rights and freedoms of others prevail over the freedom of assembly (Article 5). If authorities make a decision on forbidding a rally it should be done in the process of discussing the notification. The police also has the right to make such a decision at the phase of the rally. The decision can be appealed at court.
If authorities make a decision to forbid holding a rally on a given day or a given hour, the decision should be grounded and meetings should be arranged with the organizers of the rally as well as negotiations should be conducted beforehand to find a compromise on the place, date and other issues in regard of the rally (Article 16-17).
Rallies that have less than 100 participants or are spontaneous or prompt are held without notification and can not continue for more than 6 hours.
In practice rallies of the opposition or NGOs (even small) are constantly banned. Namely, after the reopening of the Square of Freedom for the rally of Armenian National Congress ((ANC), an extra-parliamentary opposition alliance) all the notifications of ANC to hold a rally there were rejected. Not only events organized by ANC or "political events" are declined. Environmental groups have also had difficulties with having mass public events.
Yerevan Municipality rejected to authorize a mass public event organized by Teghut Defense Group which resulted in a conflict with the police. The event that was planned as a concert-demonstration went on with the demonstration part only as the café with which there was a preliminary agreement on providing electricity for the concert refused to do so on the day of the event (the management of the café was warned not to provide electricity).[6]
Usage of force by policemen is widespread. Some young activists of ANC try to organize a non-public event at the Square of Freedom on the 31st of May, during which 10-15 people were arrested and taken to police. Later charges were brought against to of the participants, Sargis Gevorgyan and Davit Kriimjyan, for hooliganism and violence against a representative of authorities.
In another case ANC activists were beat and arrested for an attempt to organize a piquet near the place, where EU delegation had a conference on the RA judicial independence (November 9-10) and 200 meters from a place where the Ombudsman, GTZ, Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR had discussion on the New Draft Law on Peaceful Rallies and Demonstrations (November 9).[7]
[1] United Nations Organisation Universal Declaration of Human Rights available at: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml
[2] United Nations Organisation International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights available at: http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cpr.html
[3] Council of Europe European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms available at: http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/Treaties/Html/005.htm
[4] Constitution of the Republic of Armenia available at: http://www.parliament.am/parliament.php?id=constitution&lang=eng
[5] Mary Aleksanyan Law on Freedom of Assembly: Clear Limitations or Ambiguous Freedoms? available at: http://www.hra.am/am/point-of-view/2011/05/24/assembly [Մերի Ալեքսանյան «Հավաքների ազատության մասին» օրենք. հստակ սահմանափակումնե՞ր, թե՞ անորոշ ազատություններ»] http://www.hra.am/am/point-of-view/2011/05/24/assembly
[6] Open Society Foundations - Armenia Armenia's ENP Implementation in 2010 Partnership for Open Society Perspective, November 2010, pg. 17
[7] Idib
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