FORUM SYNOPSIS:
HUMAN RIGHTS IN ARMENIA (JUNE 2006)

On Wednesday, June 14 Birthright Armenia organized a forum dedicated to Human Rights issues in Armenia and particularly dealing with the forcible eviction of residents that inhabit areas in central Yerevan that have great property value. Using states’ rights arguments, the residents are being compensated nearly 10% of the actual value of the land.

After a prologue dealing with the historical basis and relevant international law for human rights in the world, guest speaker Mr.Vahe Grigoryan, Head of the Rights Advocacy Center, and defense counsel for a few families in the Buzand Street eviction cases described the cases of his clients. Whereas the law does allow for government takeover of private property for specific public purposes, there is no specific law that allows for private property to be taken by the state for private commercial enterprise, and that the justifications used by the government for their confiscation, directly contradict the Constitution of Armenia.

People who lived in the center of Yerevan (nearly 60,000 people) have been forced over the last 6 years to leave their houses. Under the guise of “strategic needs of the country”, this lucrative land grab is actually enriching officials at the various levels of the Government. The construction of elite buildings around the Northern and Central Avenues have become a serious tacit financial income source for officials in the Government and Yerevan Municipality. Residents have been forced to sign the official agreements, giving up their rights to land with little compensation, under threat of being evicted with no payment at all. And the residents have no practical means of recourse.

Depi Hayk participant and AVC volunteer Jason Allukian asked a very logical question: “Why does the public elect politicians to represent them in the parliament and in the government who allow for these practices to continue?” Mr. Grigoryan answered that there are no fair and open elections in Armenia and that we have a long way to go in creation of civil society and respecting human rights.