Transparency International Anticorruption Center (TIAC) expresses its positive conclusion with regard to the Draft Law on Making Amendments to the Republic of Armenia (RA) Law on the Treatment of Arrestees and Detainees developed by the RA Ministry of Justice. Notably, we find that the proposed draft legislation along with a number of existing norms will enable identification and public awareness of alleged violations against arrestees and detainees as well as the acquisition of information on illegal and discriminatory behavior against them through contacts with them.

Specifically:

According to paragraph 2 of article 48 of the RA Law on the Treatment of Arrestees and Detainees, the RA President, President of RA National Assembly, RA Prime Minister, members of RA National Assembly, RA Human Rights Devender, President of RA Constitutional Court, President of RA Court of Cassation, representatives of international organizations, based on international treaties joined by Armenia, as well as other subjects foreseen by the noted article have the unobstructed right of way to the place of detention of arrestees and detainees. The draft legislation proposes to clarify the limits of the unobstructed right of way to the place of detention for arrestees and detainees for persons prescribed by article 48 of the law in the cases when there is a warrant on banning visits issued by the authority conducting the criminal proceedings. Two such regimes have been proposed:

  • If there is a decision by the authority conducting the criminal proceedings on the ban of visits to arrestees or detainees, then persons prescribed by article 48 of the law shall, except for cases foreseen by law, exclusively interact with detainees and arrestees. Moreover, the interaction may not take place separately.
  • If there is a decision by the authority conducting the criminal proceedings on the ban of visits to arrestees or detainees, then persons prescribed by article 48 of the law, except for cases foreseen by the law, shall visit arrestees and detainees upon application to the authority conducting the criminal proceedings and receipt of permission for such visits. The permission for the visit shall be rejected by the reasoned decision of the authority conducting the criminal proceedings.

We believe the two proposed regimes for the solution of the issue are relevant to the situations arising in legal practice, considering the fact that the RA legislation also provides other grounds that enable the identification of legal violations against arrestees and detainees, particularly the right foreseen by point 6 of paragraph 1 of article 18 of the RA Law on Advocacy as well as paragraph 3 of article 21 of said law enable the attorney to communicate with their client in a confidential and unobstructed manner with the right to visit the client without any number of limitations to visits.

In addition, according to paragraph 4 of article 9 of the Constitutional Law on the Human Rights Defender, national and local self-government bodies, organizations and their officials or representatives must guarantee the right of unobstructed and confidential communication of the person held in a place of restricted freedom of deprived of freedom with their attorney.