Armenia
ENTRY INTO FORCE of the European Convention on Human Rights
26 April 2002
Number of implemented cases*
61
Examples
An election candidate’s unfair disqualification leads to new rules on property declarations
Election authorities prevented Gagik Sarukhanyan from standing for parliament because he had failed to declare property he owned. The European court found that this had violated Gagik’s electoral rights, because he had had good reason to believe his declaration was correct. Armenia responded by removing the requirement for election candidates to declare such information before registration.
Armenia
Better licensing procedure for TV stations
Independent TV channel A1+ was taken off the air after a regulator denied its parent company’s bid for a broadcasting licence. The European court ruled that Armenia had breached the company’s freedom of expression because the regulator gave no reasons for its decisions. Armenia then changed the law to bring the licensing procedure into line with the European Convention on Human Rights.
An unreasonable ban on a peaceful demonstration leads to reforms to protect free assembly
A human rights NGO planned a march in Yerevan, to commemorate a man who had died in police custody. The Mayor’s office banned the march. The Strasbourg court ruled that the ban had not been properly justified, breaching the NGO’s right to free assembly. After the ban, reforms were made to protect the right to hold public demonstrations in Armenia.
Justice for man convicted because of his religious beliefs
Vahan Bayatyan is a Jehovah’s Witness. Aged 18 he asked to do civilian rather than military service, due to his religious beliefs. He was convicted of draft evasion, and sentenced to over two years’ imprisonment. The Strasbourg court ruled that this had violated Mr Bayatyan’s right to religious freedom. Subsequent changes were made to the system of national service.
* This figure includes all judgments and decisions from the European Court of Human Rights (including friendly settlements) concerning which the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has decided that all necessary follow-up measures have been taken. Source: the database of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECHR, HUDOC-EXEC.