Rights defenders tell CE Secretary about human rights violations in Armenia

Human rights activists from Armenia sent a letter to Torbjorn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CE), whose visit to Armenia will take place in the coming days. In the letter members of several public organizations draw Mr Jagland's attention to systematic human rights violations in their country.

"On the eve of your visit to Yerevan in the context of the CE's Forum 'For the Future of Democracy', we should like to draw your attention to blatant human rights violations in Armenia, which are telling negatively on the state of democracy in the country," the authors write.

"Despite particular demands articulated in Resolutions 1609 (2008), 1622 (2008), 1643 (2009) and 1677 (2009) passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) after the crisis that followed the falsified 2008 presidential election, the Armenian authorities failed to ensure the impartial and thorough investigation of the events of March 1, 2008, and to release the persons, who were deprived of freedom for political reasons," human rights activists assert.

Armenian defenders ask the CE Secretary "to demand from Armenian authorities to immediately release all political prisoners and carry out an independent and impartial investigation into the events of March 1, 2008.