Armenian Ombudsman soon to present new report on last March 1 events

Ombudsman Armen Arutyunyan has prepared a new report on the events on March 1, 2008. The document deals with the litigations held against the people arrested on charges of organizing mass disorders.

Mr Arutyunyan told journalists that the report would be presented in the near future and stated that people from his office are closely watching the trial of Nikol Pashinyan, an activist of the opposition and editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Armenian Time".

As to the estimates by international human rights organizations of the situation in the sphere of human rights in Armenia, the Ombudsman has stated that it was unsatisfactory and still remains such.

Armen Arutyunyan touched on the issue of labour law in Armenia. "Speaking about human rights in Armenia under the present system is senseless. From the viewpoint of enforcement of labour law in Armenia, the principle of labour exploitation is at work today.

Thus, the checks conducted by the Ombudsman's office in five out of 70 taxi services revealed that drivers worked for 18 hours per day without payment. Besides, according to Mr Arutyunyan, the sphere lacks medical examination and servicing; and one of the organizations was working without a license for a year.

The Ombudsman has reported that the employees of his office had also made a study in the sphere of ecology and also fixed serious problems there. The major omissions, according to Arutyunyan, are in felling trees, no-purpose use of forests and parks, and countrywide accumulation of construction garbage.