Police Guard to contribute to effective exercise of right of assembly  in Armenia - minister of interior

ArmInfo. On December 11, RA  Interior Minister Arpine Sargsyan received a delegation headed by  member of the Cypriot delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the  Council of Europe, rapporteur on the execution of ECHR judgments  Constantinos Efstathiou. As reported by the press service of the  Ministry of Internal Affairs, the meeting was attended by Chairman of  the NA Committee on State and Legal Affairs Vladimir Vardanyan.

The Minister emphasized that the effective execution of ECHR  judgments is a means of ensuring the highest guarantee of human  rights protection in the Republic of Armenia.

Touching upon the violations recorded by the ECHR judgments in a  number of cases against the republic, Arpine Sargsyan pointed out the  tools and actions that need to be taken in the direction of forming  institutional mechanisms within the mandate of the Ministry of  Internal Affairs.

Speaking about the introduction of the norm of using proportional  force, the Minister highlighted the adoption by the National Assembly  of a package of laws on the formation of the Police Guard, which will  ensure the effective implementation of the right to freedom of  assembly with a new approach. In this context, Arpine Sargsyan  emphasized the importance of education aimed at developing the  capabilities of the personnel. The draft law received a positive  assessment from an international expert of the Council of Europe.

Highly appreciating the steps taken by the Ministry of Internal  Affairs to implement the decisions of the ECHR, Constantinos  Efstathiou highlighted the process of improving the legislative field  in a number of areas, positively assessing the work done so far.

The parties discussed issues of proper recording of obvious  manifestations of cruel treatment, improving the conditions of places  of detention, equipping police stations with video recording  equipment, as well as other issues of mutual interest.

The positive results of the measures taken against the Republic of  Armenia in group cases were also discussed.