Armenia

The Venice Commission, the Council of Europe's "European Commission for Democracy through Law" was asked by the Armenian government to comment on its draft law to amend the Alternative Service Law of the country.

The European Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the Venice Commission, is the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters.

On 2 February 2012, the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, demanded that the right to conscientious objection to military service should be guaranteed in all parts of Europe. In his blog post, he stated:

"People should not be imprisoned when their religious or other convictions prevent them from doing military service. Instead they should be offered a genuinely civilian alternative. This is now the established European standard, respected in most countries – but there are some unfortunate exceptions."

Following the Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Bayatyan v Armenia from July 2011, in which the European Court of Human Rights for the first time recognised the right to conscientious objection as a right recognised under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (see CO-Update No 67, August 2011), several chambers of the European Court have no consolidated this new jurisprudence of the Court.

Communications report of special procedures*

Communications sent, 1 June 2011 to 30 November 2011
Replies received, 1 August 2011 to 31 January 2012

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According to the information received, members of the Jehovah's Witnesses community had been facing harassment, as well as the imprisonment of the following 72 Jehovah's Witnesses:

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1.2 Visits.

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Visit to Armenia.

(…) Regarding the right to conscientious objection, the Commissioner emphasised the urgent need to develop a genuinely civilian service option in Armenia, and recom­mended the release of all conscientious objectors imprisoned because of non-performance of military service.

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CommDH(2012)1
Source: https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1895365

THIRD SECTION

CASE OF TSATURYAN v. ARMENIA

(Application no. 37821/03)

JUDGMENT

STRASBOURG

10 January 2012

This judgment will become final in the circumstances set out in Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision.

In the case of Tsaturyan v. Armenia,

The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:

Josep Casadevall, President,
Corneliu Bîrsan,
Alvina Gyulumyan,
Egbert Myjer,
Ineta Ziemele,
Luis López Guerra,
Mihai Poalelungi, judges,
and Santiago Quesada, Section Registrar,

THIRD SECTION

CASE OF BUKHARATYAN v. ARMENIA

(Application no. 37819/03)

JUDGMENT

STRASBOURG

10 January 2012

This judgment will become final in the circumstances set out in Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision.

In the case of Bukharatyan v. Armenia,

The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:

Josep Casadevall, President,
Corneliu Bîrsan,
Alvina Gyulumyan,
Egbert Myjer,
Ineta Ziemele,
Luis López Guerra,
Mihai Poalelungi, judges,

3. Reports and continuous dialogue.

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Report on Armenia.

(…) Regarding the right to conscientious objection, the Commissioner found that there was an urgent need to develop a genuinely civilian service option in Armenia and that all conscientious objectors who are in prison because of non-performance of military service should be released.

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CommDH(2011)28

Source: https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1825409&Site=CommDH

Grand chamber judgement recognises right to conscientious objection to military service

(Application no. 23459/03)

JUDGMENT

STRASBOURG
7 July 2011
This judgment is final but may be subject to editorial revision.
 
In the case of Bayatyan v. Armenia,
The European Court of Human Rights, sitting as a Grand Chamber composed of:
Jean-Paul Costa, President, 
 Christos Rozakis, 
 Nicolas Bratza, 
 Peer Lorenzen, 
 Françoise Tulkens, 
 Nina Vajić, 
 Lech Garlicki, 
 Alvina Gyulumyan, 
 Dean Spielmann, 
 Renate Jaeger, 
 Sverre Erik Jebens, 
 Päivi Hirvelä, 
 Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska, 
 Ledi Bianku, 
 Mihai Poalelungi, 
 Nebojša Vučinić, 

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The issue of imprisoned conscientious objectors – currently, all of whom are members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses community - has been on the table for many years. Conscientious objectors are not willing to perform an alternative service option which is under the supervision of the military. There is still no alternative to military service available in Armenia which can be qualified as genuinely civilian in nature. The Commissioner strongly believes that conscien­tious objectors should not be imprisoned and urges the authorities to put in place an alternative civilian service.

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Armenia: