The Decline Will Be More Evident in the Next Report: Human Rights Defender on Freedom House's Report on Armenia's Retreat

Armenia has ranked 21st among 29 countries in terms of freedom indicators in the Freedom House human rights organization's report titled 'Countries in Transition: Anti-Democratic Turn'. This represents a decline compared to the report published last year. For the first time since the 2018 revolution, Armenia's democracy index has fallen.

The noted decline is attributed to a number of factors by human rights defender Zara Hovhannisyan. She stated, “The promises made by the authorities after the revolution gave hope for improvement, especially regarding state institutions. However, the war in 2020 revealed serious gaps in these institutions. For instance, it is mentioned in the report that a severe crisis has developed in Armenia as a result of the war over Nagorno-Karabakh, and the democracy rating has decreased. This is mainly related to the decline in public trust in the authorities and the effectiveness of the government's actions.”

The report highlights the lack of support from state institutions for displaced citizens from Artsakh and the absence of vital minimum conditions for them. It also notes that often various civil society institutions perform the function of concealing the shortcomings of state institutions, which indicates that the state’s institutional framework is unstable and effectively non-functional. Hovhannisyan asserts that the targeting of civil society has played a significant role, where the state has shown serious shortcomings in protecting this important democratic institution to ensure that civil society remains a serious defender of democracy and human rights.

Although the human rights organization's report does not address the events surrounding the Constitutional Court in 2020, the defender believes this has also influenced the report since these events were 'far from legal processes'. The 2020 report also covered anti-corruption efforts and elections, noting that there had been significant progress in these areas. In the 2021 report, Hovhannisyan indicated that observations regarding anti-corruption measures were not thorough.

Regarding elections, as there were none in 2020, the report contains no mention of them. There are some observations concerning press freedom in the 2020 report, and no progress has been made in that area.

Hovhannisyan believes that the report for 2021, which will be published in 2022, will show even more evident decline due to the processes regarding the Human Rights Defender institution, elections, and tensions between the military and Prime Minister Pashinyan. “This year we have witnessed 'attacks' on the Human Rights Defender institution, as when financial stability issues arose, Freedom House immediately issued a statement. I am sure this will be reflected in the 2021 report. I also expect that the 2021 report will include observations regarding electoral processes. This will depend on what kind of elections Armenia can hold, and comparisons will be made with previous elections, and unfortunately, the results will not be encouraging, as the pre-election situation is already not favorable regarding human rights and freedoms.”

She noted that election campaigns have not yet begun, but there are elements of electoral campaigning, and the authorities are practically using administrative resources to organize their rallies in the regions. “This already constitutes a violation; the election campaign has not even started, and there is a problem of equal conditions with other competitors. We already have processes of decline, and if the election results raise doubts, this will also affect these indicators,” Hovhannisyan emphasized.

According to her, approaches to democracy have a serious impact when there is a decline in trust in the country, yet the top echelons of power do not feel responsible for it. “For instance, in other countries, in such cases, high-ranking officials resign, while in Armenia such resignations do not occur, which is also an indicator that democracy is not well established, as in a democracy, clinging to a chair is unreasonable,” she stated.

The human rights defender added that these trends are dangerous because Armenia seemed to be trying to at least advance a semi-democratic process steadily, but the reports actually confirm that we are stepping back from those processes, which is very painful.