CoE: Armenia failed to implement ECRI's priority recommendationsSeptember 10, 2019 - 13:58 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) on Tuesday, September 10 published conclusions on the implementation of priority recommendations made to Armenia in 2016. Each country report by ECRI contains recommendations for which priority follow-up is requested. Two years after the publication of each report, ECRI asks the Government concerned what has been done to implement these priority recommendations and draws up its conclusions. In its 2016 report on Armenia, ECRI recommended that the authorities bring their criminal law into line with ECRI’s General Policy Recommendation No. 7; ECRI concludes that this has not been implemented as, for example, the list of “prohibited grounds” in the new draft Criminal Code does not contain all those proposed by ECRI. Besides, the adoption of the new Criminal Code is currently only planned for 2020. ECRI’s General Policy Recommendation No.7 sets out the key elements which should feature in a comprehensive national legislation to effectively combat racism and racial discrimination. The scope of the Recommendation is very wide and covers all branches of the law: constitutional, criminal, civil and administrative. It addresses not only direct and indirect discrimination, but also other legal aspects of the fight against racism, including racist expressions, racists organisations and racially-motivated offences. ECRI also recommended that the various action plans for the integration of vulnerable groups include a description of their objectives, a complete set of criteria for assessing the impact on those groups, and a clear financial plan. This has been partially implemented. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) is a human rights monitoring body which specialises in questions relating to the fight against racism, discrimination (on grounds of “race”, ethnic/national origin, colour, citizenship, religion, language, sexual orientation and gender identity), xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance; it prepares reports and issues recommendations to member States. Top stories The number of state universities will be reduced from 23 to 8 by 2030, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan has said. From September 21 to November 11, a total of 2,820 Russians registered at a place of residence in Armenia, the police has said. The situation on the contact line between Karabakh and Azerbaijan was relatively stable overnight, the Defense Army says. Defense Minister Suren Papikyan has visited the southern Armenian province of Syunik, the Defense Ministry reported on March 18. Partner news | Russia clarifying reports on Baku’s alleged arms supply to Ukraine Russia says is carefully working to verify reports about alleged arms supplies from Azerbaijan to Ukraine Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. |