Armenia activists challenge legal system and need your support - #HRArmList

The courts in Armenia legitimise ‘blacklists’. In fact, that’s not the only disappointing thing they do. Like many, I have little respect towards Armenian legal system that is not independent and marred with corruption, and with few exceptions, does what the ruling regime dictates. In the face of such backdrop, it’s even more important and encouraging that some activists, the bravest and the brightest, keep challenging the courts and status quo in Armenia.

And when active citizens challenge homophobia and bigotry of public figures, politicians, showbiz reps, media, they themselves turn into targets of abuse and hate propaganda.

For background to this story, read:

Armenia Eurovision national jury’s Arshakyan sisters re Conchita and LGBT: ‘Mental health patients are repulsive’

Tabloid of hate: virulent homophobia awarded by Armenia president’s state medal and stamped by court’s approval

“Effectively equaling hate speech to the “freedom of speech”, all court instances in the country rejected the collective claim of 16 people. The expressions made by the judges during the court hearings proved that they were biased towards the case, and the facts had very little to do with their judgement. As a result, not only did the claim of the citizens didn’t receive a fair treatment, but they also ended up with a heavy financial burden by the court verdicts. The court obliged the “blacklisted” citizens to reimburse the legal expenses of the very media outlet that promotes hatred and discrimination.”

These activists need your support. I am glad to see that after the first day of sharing this campaign on Twitter and Facebook, 50% of the target was achieved, and at time of writing this post - it reached 75%. Please donate and share: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/activists-fight-for-justice-in-armenia

*Twitter hashtag for this campaign is #HRArmList

PACE delegates: Armenian authorities fail to condemn incitement to hatred against LGBT people

Below is a statement [Written declaration No. 584 | Doc. 13690 | 28 January 2015] by 22 delegates of the PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe):

[For background: Tabloid of hate: virulent homophobia awarded by Armenia president’s state medal and stamped by court’s approval]

On 17 May 2014 the Armenian newspaper ‘Iravunk’ published an article on its website entitled “They serve the interests of international homo-addiction [sic] lobbying: the blacklist of the country’s and nation’s enemies”. It attacked “homosexual lobbyists” for trying to “aggressively enforce their moral dogma on our country”. Demanding “zero tolerance”, it identified 60 people, calling for them to be ostracised, denied employment and access to the media, and excluded from participation “in the upbringing of younger generations”.

The chair of the ‘Iravunk’ board, Hayk Babukhanyan, is an MP for Armenia’s governing political faction, the Republican Party.

The authorities have failed to condemn this incitement to hatred and discrimination. On the contrary, on 25 October Mr Babukhanyan was awarded a medal of honour by the President of Armenia. A law suit against “Iravunk” for defamation was dismissed six days later.

We call upon:

• Armenia’s delegates to this Assembly, particularly those from the Republican Party, to impress upon colleagues the need to refrain from incitement to hatred and discrimination;

• The Armenian authorities to condemn such incitement unreservedly and to put in place measures to implement the Committee of Ministers Recommendation on combating discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Ms Petra De SUTTER, Belgium, SOC

Ms Boriana ÅBERG, Sweden, EPP/CD

Mr Claude ADAM, Luxembourg, SOC

Mr Paride ANDREOLI, San Marino, SOC

Mr Gerardo GIOVAGNOLI, San Marino, SOC

Mr Jonas GUNNARSSON, Sweden, SOC

Ms Monica HAIDER, Sweden, SOC

Ms Eva-Lena JANSSON, Sweden, SOC

Ms Lotta JOHNSSON FORNARVE, Sweden, UEL

Mr Pierre-Yves LE BORGN', France, SOC

Mr Philippe MAHOUX, Belgium, SOC

Ms Marit MAIJ, Netherlands, SOC

Ms Liliane MAURY PASQUIER, Switzerland, SOC

Mr Michael McNAMARA, Ireland, SOC

Ms Ana Catarina MENDONÇA, Portugal, SOC

Ms Marie-Claude MORIN, Canada

Ms Melita MULIĆ, Croatia, SOC

Mr Michele NICOLETTI, Italy, SOC

Ms Carina OHLSSON, Sweden, SOC

Ms Maria de Belém ROSEIRA, Portugal, SOC

Ms Deborah SCHEMBRI, Malta, SOC

Ms Tineke STRIK, Netherlands, SOC

Tabloid of hate: virulent homophobia awarded by Armenia president’s state medal and stamped by court’s approval

I’d like to start this pretty depressing post on a somehow lighter note, with a joke (AM), posted on Facebook for this occasion by user A.N.:

- Բարև ձեզ։ Բեղիկներով պահպանակ ունե՞ք։
- Ունենք, բայց էսօր գնացել ա մեդալ ստանալու։

In an article “They serve the interests of international homosexual lobby: the blacklist of country’s and nation’s enemies”, Iravunk tabloid listed 60 individuals with the links to their Facebook pages, calling them “zombies”, “traitors” and more.

"On 17th of May, 2014, the editor-in-chief of “Iravunk” newspaper Hovhannes Galajyan published an article on the newspaper’s website titled “They serve the interests of international homosexual lobbying: the blacklist of country’s and nation’s enemies.” In the article, the author presents a “blacklist” containing Facebook hyperlinks of 60 people, makes offensive statements addressed to those persons and calls for “Ordinary people to stop communicating with the lobbyist on the internet, as well as in real life, not to greet them, not to help them with any issues, not to engage in any business relations with them; state officials not to hire those lobbyists for public service jobs, and if they already work there, to fire them under any convenient pretext.” For employers to do the same and for the co-owners of media companies, so those lobbyists won’t be given any chance to make an influence on public opinion and also for “the heads of educational institutions, so they won’t let the lobbyists to participate in the upbringing of younger generations.” […]
On 30th of May, 2014, several citizens whose names appeared in the “blacklist” have sent a letter to the president of the editorial board of Iravunk, Haik Babukhanyan, and the editor-in-chief Hovhannes Galajyan, where they pointed out that the article contains insults, and also requested them to deny the information written in the article. This request was denied and in 03.06.2014 another article was published titled as “And they still dare to request a denial?” in which Iravunk continued to insult and give inaccurate information. In particular, such expressions as “this creature,” “filthy biography” and more were aimed at those who requested denial of the untrue information."

A statement posted by PINK Armenia reads:

“Today the court rejected the case of 16 individuals against Iravunk newspaper. Earlier the Armenian newspaper Iravunk published a ‘blacklist’ of Armenians connected to the LGBT community that it claimed to be enemies of the nation.

Few days ago this homophobic paper’s founding editor and two other workers received Medal of Honor from the president of RA. The president of National Assembly of RA also congratulated the founding editor of the newspaper, who is a MP and a member of Republican Fraction as well.

We believe that high level support of official reflected on the decision of the Court and this shows once more that hate speech and homophobia is highly supported by the high level officials of Armenia, and this creates atmosphere of impunity, gives floor for hate crime and fascism in the country.”

Courts in Armenia are not independent, rarely making decisions that contravene ruling regime’s position. Not only court rejected the lawsuit on the basis of “freedom of expression” (how 'noble' of them!) but obliged citizens to make payments in favour of Iravunk paper to compensate their expenses. Activists will pursue available legal channels to appeal the court’s verdict and, depending on circumstances, may reach the European court of human rights too.

Epress.am reports from the courtroom: “After the judge read the verdict nearly ten people began clapping in favor of the decision. Among them was “Iravunk Media” company director, Republican Party faction MP Hayk Babukhanyan (pictured on right), who just last week was awarded the Movses Khorenatsi Medal by President Serzh Sargsyan for the 25th anniversary of the Iravunk paper.”



To remind, this tabloid consistently and systematically publishes articles and other postings full of hate speech and virulent homophobia.

[Hate: Armenian tabloid Iravunk advocates killing of gays]

As I mentioned in past: “As a rule, one hate goes hand in hand with another hate. If you look at Iravunk’s articles, they are not just homophobic, but racist, full of hate to everyone who is different. If you are not gay, you would have still be hated by Galadjyan-like people. For ‘different’ ethnicity, colour of your eyes (skin), music you listen to, films you watch, T-shirt you wear. Anything, really, which is outside of their sad, little and narrow-minded world.”

To sum up: Ruling regime in Armenia turning hate into a state ideology and awarding hatemongers with state awards. Here is a shameful link to the the presidential press-release from the award’s ceremony and picture via president.am.

This picture will be remembered among the most shameful pages of the modern history of Republic of Armenia. Pretty disgusting sight.

And let’s not forget that this story is just part of the growing overall trend. Put this story into a broader perspective of impunity and culture of violence in Armenia supported on a highest state level, like recent re-appointment of Surik Khachatryan (nicknamed “Liska”) - notorious for violent conduct - as governor of Syunik region, and the complete picture is even more depressing.

P.S. This case was picked up by popular international publications buzzfeed (+ here), gaystarnews and more.

First case from Georgia to the European Court of Human Rights concerning police homophobia

Good precedent (first such case not only from Georgia but the South Caucasus as a whole)... and FYI: all homophobic officials from post-Soviet states and beyond out there.

For more background info on this story:

Police attacks Georgian LGBT group Inclusive Foundation in Tbilisi. Head of organisation Paata Sabelashvili arrested

More details re detention of Paata Sabelashvili, head of Georgian LGBT group Inclusive Foundation

Europe's gay rights group ILGA-Europe condemns police raid of member organisation in Georgia, demands immediate release of its board member Paata Sabelashvili (statement and pictures)

Armenian groups condemn violence against gays in Georgia and call for immediate release of detained Georgian gay rights activist Paata Sabelashvilli

Interestingly, Paata was not mentioned among applicants to the European Court. He was the head (co-founder) of the Inclusive Foundation, LGBT NGO in Georgia. Unfortunately, the Inclusive Foundation is no longer active.

Thanks to LGBT Asylum News for the info.


*via LGBT Asylum News

Sunday, 8 May 2011
First case from Georgia to the European Court of Human Rights concerning police homophobia

Source: INTERIGHTS

The International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights (INTERIGHTS), together with Article 42 of the Constitution, a Georgian human rights NGO, has submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Aghdgomelashvili and Japaridze v Georgia (Application no. 7224/11).

The case concerns a police search of the premises of the ‘Inclusive Foundation’ (IF) conducted on 15 December 2009. From 2006 to 2009 the IF was the only lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) NGO in Georgia. It was co-founded by the first applicant, Eketarine Aghdgomelashvili who is currently the Executive Director of ‘Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group’ (WISG). The second applicant, Tinatin Japaridze worked for the IF as a full time programme officer from 2006 to 2009 and is currently a project manager at the ‘WISG’.

The complaint to the Court alleges that, in conducting their search, the police officers abused their powers and violated the relevant domestic procedures whilst subjecting the applicants to humiliating and degrading treatment.

In particular, as soon as the police officers discovered the nature of the IF’s work, they displayed extreme homophobic behaviour towards all the individuals present in the office including the applicants.  This included multiple insults and rough treatment based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation. The IF staff were also unlawfully strip searched without being provided with any explanation or information about their rights.

Even though it has been two years since the incident, both applicants are still extremely upset and stressed by the police officers’ behaviour and its negative effect on their lives.

The seriousness of the incident is reflected in the significant amount of attention it has received both in the media and civil society. Both national and international NGOs have made public statements condemning the violations and appealed to the Georgian authorities to remedy them. However, despite all of this, there has never been any investigation or attempt to hold any of the police officers accountable.

The application argues that the applicants were subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment (Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights) and /or interference in their private lives (Article 8 of the Convention) as well as discrimination based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation (Article 14 of the Convention; Article 1 of Protocol No 12). In addition, it is contended that applicants’ strip searches were not “in accordance with the law” and did not pursue any of the legitimate aims envisaged by the second paragraph of Article 8 of the Convention. Further, it is submitted that, in the absence of an investigation into the incident, including whether it was motivated by homophobia and a subsequent failure of the State to identify and punish those responsible, there is a continuing procedural violation of Articles 3, 8 and 14.  The lack of effective remedies also breaches Article 13 of the Convention.

This is the first case from Georgia concerning homophobic ill-treatment by the police. In the absence of any similar judgments against other member states to the Council of Europe, it provides the Court with the opportunity to express its position in relation to such a serious issue. In particular the application places the incident within the wider context in Georgia where discriminatory practices towards LGBT individuals, a vulnerable group, regularly occur.

This case is a further illustration of attempts by officials in the former Soviet Union space to suppress LGBT activism which has already been done through banning gay-pride marches (see Alekseyev v Russia, nos. 4916/07, 25924/08 and 14599/09; Genderdoc-M v Moldova, no. 9106/06), resorting to hate speech (Alekseyev  et al v Russia, no 39954/09) or refusing to register LGBT NGOs.

*picture - via ILGA-Europe

Human Rights Watch calls on California court to overturn Proposition 8

Human Rights Watch: Equality is a basic value underlying human rights standards and cannot be retracted at the whim of a simple majority, Human Rights Watch said in an amicus brief submitted to the California Supreme Court. Human Rights Watch called on the court to overturn Proposition 8, a referendum narrowly passed last November that withdrew the right to marry from lesbian and gay couples. More...

Armenia’s “Human Rights Day”

10 December – Human Rights Day, 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

For details - see Unzipped