Targeting Children Should Be Criminalized in Armenia, Says MP from ruling party

Arthur Hovhannisyan, an MP from the ruling Civil Contract party, calls for the criminalization of targeting children based on their parents' activities. He made this statement during budget discussions in the National Assembly, addressing Armenia's Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan and inquiring whether sufficient mechanisms exist to implement such measures.

“We need to tighten the criminal code and establish criminal liability for targeting children based on their parents' activities, without any mitigating circumstances, regardless of whether the parent is in opposition or government, whether they are a taxi driver or a construction worker; I don’t care, even if it's the child of the person I dislike the most,” said Hovhannisyan.

Anahit Manasyan noted in response that the protection of children's rights should be carried out in the context of the child's best interests, and it does not matter who the child's parents are. She added that throughout the world, relatives of politicians are often targeted, and the severity of that targeting depends on societal behavior.

She continued, “Today, public discourse is flavored with texts that contain intolerance and hate, often targeting not only political figures but ordinary citizens.”

“Yes, the act can be punishable if it contains elements of a crime as defined by the criminal code. But we must be very careful and sensitive here, so that criminal liability applies only in the most extreme cases; otherwise, we might cross the line and enter the realm of political persecution,” she said.

It is noteworthy that on April 24, Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's wife, Anna Hakobyan, along with her daughter, Arpi, visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex to pay tribute to the victims of the Armenian Genocide. Citizens welcomed Anna Hakobyan with chants of, “Nikola, traitor,” “Nikola, murderer,” “Nikola, genocidalist,” and “Nikola, Turk.” On April 25, it became known that criminal proceedings had been initiated concerning the incident, and seven individuals had been arrested. One of them was charged under Article 329, Part 2, Clause 1 of the Armenian Criminal Code (public statements directed at inciting hatred, discrimination, intolerance or hostility, or propagandizing such actions, including distributing materials or objects for these purposes by a group of individuals in prior agreement).