A One-day Protest Action Launched in the Republic of Armenia

06.02.2018 12:39

An initiative group of advocates has made the following announcement:

“We, the advocates of the Republic of Armenia, condemn the provisions referring to judicial sanctions and two new draft laws included in the “Code of Civil Procedure of RA” law draft (hereinafter Draft) by the Ministry of Justice of RA and Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs and Protection of Human Rights of the National Assembly of RA as well as the discussion of the matter and the final conclusion made with the violation of the "Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly" constitutional law which is not relevant to the fundamental principles of the legal state.

The provision on imposing a judicial fine on the advocates could not have been included in the Civil Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia since,

-the draft does not contain the need to impose a fine on advocates,

- the government of RA has missed the possibility of submitting a proposal within two weeks

-the Government of RA submitted the new draft laws on amendments to the Criminal and Administrative Procedure Codes of RA after the first reading, excluding the possibility of debate of those drafts in two readings.

Organizing the discussion of this issue in such an urgent way, when the provisions of the same drafts on judicial fine will start to be in force from January 1, 2019, prove that the Ministry of Justice of RA has obvious defamed and biased attitude towards advocacy.

In order to prevent the attempt of adoption of such provisions endangering the independence of advocates, we, the advocates of the Republic of Armenia, will organize a one-day protest action on February 7, 2018 by refusing to realize any defense or representation in the state bodies of the Republic of Armenia.

We are confident that our trustees realize that fight refers to their right to a fair trial, as the depressed advocate cannot realize defense effectively.

We demand from the National Assembly of RA to remove the legal regulations related to the judicial fine from the draft laws and other draft laws attached to the draft.

The protest will take place on 7 February 2018 (the whole day).

P.S. In order to discuss the Draft and to approve the further action plan, the advocates will hold a meeting at 12:00, 7 February, 2018.

Initiative group

Ara Zohrabyan

Karen Mezhlumyan

Sedrak Asatryan

Harutyun Harutyunyan

Simon Babayan

Ara Ghazaryan

Nelli Harutyunyan

Melanya Arustamyan

Tigran Khurshudyan