No Investments in the Country, Hence the Need to Cut Expenses of the Human Rights Defender's Office: Details from the Meeting

During yesterday's meeting of the Government of Armenia, amendments to the law on the "Human Rights Defender" and several other laws were approved, which will become a public nuisance in everyday life. If enacted, both the Human Rights Defender's office and the salaries of staff in preschools and schools could be significantly reduced. However, let us focus solely on the amendment to the law on the Human Rights Defender.

The newspaper "Zhoghovurd" learned that the author of this draft is the Ministry of Finance of Armenia, represented by Minister Atom Janjughazyan. According to him, the law should not limit the budget of any institution when it comes to budget cuts, allowing them to save money as they wish and direct it to other sectors.

Moreover, according to our information, Janjughazyan stated in the Government that there are no investments in the country, hence we need to make savings within. It seems that this law is about "tough times". But what will be the consequence? Reducing the Human Rights Defender's office expenses by, for instance, 1-2 million drams will hardly improve the situation in the economy. However, we will face significant problems internationally, as according to the existing law, the amount of funding allocated for the Defender’s institution from the state budget each year cannot be less than the funding amount allocated in the previous year’s budget.

Now, as this guarantee is being eliminated, our Human Rights Defender's office may drop from the A ranking it achieved with the UN back to a B level. For comparison, when the Armenian Human Rights Defender received that high title from the UN, the Azerbaijani Human Rights Defender applied to the UN for an A status by directly replicating this provision in their legislation. And now, the Armenian government is taking a step back from our country’s advancement.

It should be noted that we have signed several conventions regarding the financial stability of the Human Rights Defender's office. The financial stability is guaranteed by documents concerning the international status of the Human Rights Defender as outlined in the UN Convention against Torture, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Now it turns out that our country does not respect the very documents it has signed; this is simply unacceptable.

Additionally, it is disgraceful that the law related to the Ombudsman’s office was included and accepted on the agenda as a non-reportable, non-discussable matter, without agreement with the Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan. This is a defender whose work is appreciated by a significant portion of the public, and whose high ranking essentially jeopardizes the future of the Human Rights Defender's office.

It turns out that the government, which is gradually losing its rating during and after the war, no longer cares about public opinion, international community, democratic values, and institutions. The main thing for them is to retain power at all costs, regardless of everything. Meanwhile, various institutions in our country are endangered, destroyed, and their existence is being called into question.