In an official letter addressed to the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Arman Tatoyan, the President of the European Court of Human Rights, Guido Raimondi, highly appreciated the work of the Defender’s Office.
He especially highlighted the importance of the Defender’s practice of submitting special opinions in respect of applications to the Constitutional Court (amicus curiae) and preparing drafts of normative legal acts, stressing that it fully stems from the priorities of the Council of Europe, namely from the subsidiarity principle which is aimed at ensuring compliance of the domestic legal system with the European Convention on Human Rights.
The President of the European Court of Human Rights also highlighted that the reports issued by the Human Rights Defender are considered as important sources which are referred to in judgments concerning Armenia.
It is worth reminding that as a result of cooperation with the Constitutional Court in the past two years, the Human Rights Defender has presented special opinions in respect of human-rights-related applications. Besides, following the adoption of the new Constitutional Law on the Human Rights Defender, the Human Rights Defender’s Office prepares and circulates drafts of legal acts, which are aimed at strengthening the human rights protection mechanism in the country.
In this framework, staffs of the Human Rights Defender’s Office and the Constitutional Court have prepared drafts of legal acts with a view to implementing decisions of the Constitutional Court of Armenia. The drafts have already been officially sent to respective state authorities, as well as to human rights defense organisations and the Chamber of Advocates, so that they are able to present their opinions.
