YEREVAN, MARCH 12, ARMENPRESS. The US Department of State has published the 2019 Human Rights Report on Armenia which says that in 2019 the country’s government took steps to investigate and punish alleged abuses by former and current government officials and law enforcement authorities. As an example the report brings the investigation of the 2008 March 1 case which continued during the year. The report also says that charges filed in this and associated criminal cases included allegations of overthrowing the constitutional order, abuse and exceeding official authority, torture, complicity in bribery, official fraud, and falsification of evidence connected with the investigation of the 2008 postelection events.

The State Department’s report also touched upon the report of Council of Europe commissioner for human rights Dunja Mijatovic on Armenia which highlights the “importance of conducting the process in a careful manner “in strict adherence to the principles of rule of law, judicial independence, transparency, and guarantees of fair trial”.

“On June 4, parliament adopted a law on providing assistance to the victims of the March 2008 postelection violence, and on September 5, the government allocated 720 million drams ($1.5 million) to assist victims and their families”, the State Department’s report says.

The report also touched upon Armenia’s fight against corruption, stating that after the May 2018 “Velvet Revolution,” the government opened investigations that revealed systemic corruption encompassing most areas of public and private life. “The government launched numerous criminal cases against alleged corruption by former government officials and their relatives, parliamentarians, and in a few instances, by members of the judiciary and their relatives, with cases ranging from a few thousand to millions of U.S. dollars. The government also launched such cases against a few current government officials”, stated in the report.

As for the issues existing in Armenia’s judiciary, the report says “although the law provides for an independent judiciary, the judiciary did not generally exhibit independence and impartiality. After the 2018 political transition, popular distrust in the impartiality of judges remained strong”.

Coming to the issue of refugees, it is stated that the Armenian government took steps to provide them with shelters. “On November 21, the government allocated 1.5 billion drams ($3.2 million) for permanent housing to 112 refugee families who fled from Azerbaijan in the late 1980s and early 1990s”, the State Department’s report says.