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US DEPARTMENT OF STATE: MEMBERS OF ARMENIA'S SECURITY FORCES CONTINUED TO EMPLOY TORTURE AND INHUMAN TREATMENT REGULARLY
http://www.arminfo.am/index.cfm?objectid=E9AC9F40-A07C-11E3-822E0EB7C0D21663
Friday, February 28, 16:33
While the law prohibits torture and other cruel, inhuman, or
degrading treatment or punishment, reports indicated that members
of the Armenian security forces continued to employ them regularly,
says the 2013 Country Report on Human Rights Practices published by
the US Department of State on Feb 27.
"Witnesses reported that police beat citizens while arresting and
interrogating them. Human rights NGOs made similar allegations but
noted most cases of police mistreatment were unreported due to fear of
retaliation. Most abuses reportedly took place in police stations,
because they were not subject to public monitoring, rather than
prisons and police detention facilities, which were. According to NGOs
many individuals that authorities transferred to prisons from police
facilities alleged that police tortured, abused, and intimidated them
while they were in police custody, mainly to extort confessions",
the Report says.
"On March 13, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) presented
findings of a study by a number of domestic and international bodies
on the mistreatment and torture of juveniles in the juvenile justice
system, from their initial apprehension through the completion of
sentences. Interviews with 86 juveniles revealed that the most common
forms of mistreatment were beating and physical pressure exerted by
the police to extract confessions. Eight of the children attested
that they had personally experienced violence, and 51 percent of
those surveyed heard of the mistreatment of other children, including
beating, sexual violence, cursing, intimidation, and threats.
According to the report, the children were reluctant to report
mistreatment because they feared retaliation and did not trust
the system. Most victims considered the risks involved in making a
complaint--exposing themselves to punishment and retaliation--far
outweighed the possibility that the perpetrator would be punished",
the Report says.
The annual report of the human rights defender (the ombudsman's office)
for 2012, released in March, also stated that police investigative
bodies continued to subject individuals to cruel, inhuman, and
humiliating treatment in order to obtain confessions.
The Report points out that on March 14, the country's police chief
appointed Ashot Karapetyan as the new police chief of Yerevan. Shortly
after the appointment, Grisha Virabyan, who successfully argued in the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that Yerevan police tortured
him in 2004, announced that one of his torturers, identified during
the ECHR proceedings as A.K., was Karapetyan, who at the time was
deputy head of the Ararat regional division of the police.
Authorities defended the appointment; as of year's end, no one faced
charges for Virabyan's mistreatment. Human rights observers and media
criticized the Karapetyan appointment, noting that it reinforced
widely held beliefs concerning the lack of accountability for human
rights abuses by police.
"Within the armed forces, substandard living conditions, corruption,
and lack of accountability of commanders continued to contribute to
mistreatment and noncombat injuries. Although no reliable statistics on
the prevalence of military hazing were available, soldiers reported
to human rights organizations that abuses continued. Soldiers'
families claimed that corrupt officials controlled military units,
and human rights monitors and the ombudsman reported the government
continued to conscript soldiers with serious health conditions that
should have disqualified them from service", says the Report.
http://www.arminfo.am/index.cfm?objectid=E9AC9F40-A07C-11E3-822E0EB7C0D21663
Friday, February 28, 16:33
While the law prohibits torture and other cruel, inhuman, or
degrading treatment or punishment, reports indicated that members
of the Armenian security forces continued to employ them regularly,
says the 2013 Country Report on Human Rights Practices published by
the US Department of State on Feb 27.
"Witnesses reported that police beat citizens while arresting and
interrogating them. Human rights NGOs made similar allegations but
noted most cases of police mistreatment were unreported due to fear of
retaliation. Most abuses reportedly took place in police stations,
because they were not subject to public monitoring, rather than
prisons and police detention facilities, which were. According to NGOs
many individuals that authorities transferred to prisons from police
facilities alleged that police tortured, abused, and intimidated them
while they were in police custody, mainly to extort confessions",
the Report says.
"On March 13, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) presented
findings of a study by a number of domestic and international bodies
on the mistreatment and torture of juveniles in the juvenile justice
system, from their initial apprehension through the completion of
sentences. Interviews with 86 juveniles revealed that the most common
forms of mistreatment were beating and physical pressure exerted by
the police to extract confessions. Eight of the children attested
that they had personally experienced violence, and 51 percent of
those surveyed heard of the mistreatment of other children, including
beating, sexual violence, cursing, intimidation, and threats.
According to the report, the children were reluctant to report
mistreatment because they feared retaliation and did not trust
the system. Most victims considered the risks involved in making a
complaint--exposing themselves to punishment and retaliation--far
outweighed the possibility that the perpetrator would be punished",
the Report says.
The annual report of the human rights defender (the ombudsman's office)
for 2012, released in March, also stated that police investigative
bodies continued to subject individuals to cruel, inhuman, and
humiliating treatment in order to obtain confessions.
The Report points out that on March 14, the country's police chief
appointed Ashot Karapetyan as the new police chief of Yerevan. Shortly
after the appointment, Grisha Virabyan, who successfully argued in the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that Yerevan police tortured
him in 2004, announced that one of his torturers, identified during
the ECHR proceedings as A.K., was Karapetyan, who at the time was
deputy head of the Ararat regional division of the police.
Authorities defended the appointment; as of year's end, no one faced
charges for Virabyan's mistreatment. Human rights observers and media
criticized the Karapetyan appointment, noting that it reinforced
widely held beliefs concerning the lack of accountability for human
rights abuses by police.
"Within the armed forces, substandard living conditions, corruption,
and lack of accountability of commanders continued to contribute to
mistreatment and noncombat injuries. Although no reliable statistics on
the prevalence of military hazing were available, soldiers reported
to human rights organizations that abuses continued. Soldiers'
families claimed that corrupt officials controlled military units,
and human rights monitors and the ombudsman reported the government
continued to conscript soldiers with serious health conditions that
should have disqualified them from service", says the Report.