The Impression Is That the One Who Blames More Is Stronger: Tatoyan

In the pre-election campaign, instead of substantive issues, mutual accusations among various political forces and individual figures, including officials, dominate, along with insults and offenses associated with rhetoric linked to violence. This was written by the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Arman Tatoyan, on his Facebook page.

"Moreover, it has become the case that even the public has learned that when one side insults, curses, or accuses the other, the public starts to impatiently await how the other side will respond. The impression is that the one who blames more, curses or insults louder and with new words is stronger. Subsequently, even the supporters of political forces or public figures insult each other using the same words.

However, the pre-election campaign is not meant to provide a public spectacle of mutual accusations, insults, and curses. As a result, the sphere of public discourse has become almost entirely filled with topics of political squabbles.

During the pre-election period, the subjects of discussion should focus on the actual issues that concern people in real life, which have been raised for years in the annual and extraordinary reports of the Human Rights Defender. Besides fundamental issues of security, for instance:

• How can the deepening isolation of families in difficult life situations be excluded from society, and how can their integration into public life be ensured?
• How can it be ensured that a parent of a child with a disability does not have to care for the child at home instead of taking them to school or kindergarten and thus has to leave their job, resulting in the family living in a state of isolation from society?
• How can it be ensured that a person who has found themselves in endless bureaucratic and judicial hassles of the system supplying free medical assistance or social security, who is trying to receive their pension or undergo medical examinations, does not feel like a 'ball' in a tennis match, endlessly being sent from one place to another without resolving their issue?
• How can it be ensured that individuals are not forgotten in psychiatric hospitals due to legal and administrative chronic deficiencies, but rather receive genuine treatment aimed at returning to a full life?
• How can it be ensured that the penal system eventually stops being punitive on paper and instead serves the purpose of preparing a person for release and ensuring their full integration into real life?
• How will delays and complications in court proceedings at various administrative bodies be resolved, which lead to irreparable harm to individuals, and so on?

It is evident that instead of raising these real issues and suggesting solutions, mutual insults and curses, along with any rhetoric associated with hatred and violence, further exacerbate polarization and the detrimental phenomenon of dividing groups," he wrote.