European Court Rejects Application of Former Head of Armenia's Constitutional Court and Three Judges

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has decided not to apply interim measures requested by the former President of Armenia's Constitutional Court, Hrayr Tovmasyan, and three other members regarding the recent amendments to the country's Constitution. This was reported by Azatutyun.

According to the ECHR's statement, the applicants in the case of “Gyulumyan and others against Armenia” expected that the ECHR would demand the Armenian government to suspend the constitutional changes, which led to Tovmasyan being relieved of his position as head of the Constitutional Court, while the other three applicants were removed from their judge positions.

The ECHR specifies that the amended Armenian Constitution established a 12-year term for Constitutional Court judges and a 6-year term for the President of the Constitutional Court in 2015. However, transitional provisions stipulated that judges appointed before the amendments would serve under the old rules until retirement age, and similarly, the President of the Constitutional Court was to retain his mandate until retirement age.

Consequently, it was decided to amend the Constitution to set a 12-year term for Constitutional Court judges regardless of their appointment date and to limit the term of the President of the Constitutional Court to 6 years. A referendum had been scheduled, which, however, did not take place due to the pandemic, and the amendments were adopted by parliament and came into force in June, as noted in the statement.

Today, the ECHR decided to reject the application as outside the scope of the Court's Rule 39 regarding interim measures, since it does not present a serious and irreparable risk of violating any key rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, the ECHR's statement said.