The Armenian authorities may make useful conclusions from criticism of US Department of State, a member of the parliament from the ruling RPA faction, Samvel Farmanyan, said at today's press-conference.
He also added that US Department of State's report is a unique instrument for attraction of attention of authorities of other countries to the problems of democracy and human rights in their countries. He said that similar documents of US Department of State are rather sharp. I think that the last report is one of such regular documents, which I think, may become useful for the leadership of our country. In a certain sense, this will force the authorities to revise the situation with human rights in Armenia, and to assess and analyze the day-to-day realities correctly", - he said. At the same time, the RPA member thinks that the above mentioned document does not fully reflect the efforts taken by Armenia for settlement of problems.
To recall, corruption and lack of transparency in government remain the most significant human rights problems in Armenia, says the 2012 Report on Human Rights Practices issued by State Department. "The most significant human rights problems in Armenia are during the year were limitations on the right of citizens to change their government, corruption and lack of transparency in government, and the limited independence of the judiciary," the report says. One of the sections of the report is dedicated to the May parliamentary elections in Armenia. "Flaws in the conduct of May 6 legislative
elections included the misuse of government resources to support the ruling party, credible allegations of vote buying, deficiencies in the complaints and appeals process, and continued shortcomings in the electoral code despite improvements. Allegations of persistent corruption at all levels of government undermined the rule of law, although the government took limited steps to punish low- to mid-level official corruption. Courts remained subject to political pressure from the executive branch, which resulted in some politically motivated prosecutions and sentencing," the report says.