Your trusted source

The submitted draft amendments to the Constitution of Armenia contain more clear-cut wordings compared with the Constitution currently in force, and also address in greater detail the guarantees of the principles of separation of powers and human rights protection, expert on constitutional law Gabriel Balayan said at a press conference today.

“In themselves, the amendments to the Constitution are not going to change anything. Many developed countries simply do not have such a Law. The constitutional reform should not be viewed as a way of solving problems in Armenia”, the expert noted.

When asked why the Constitution has been amended so often in Armenia, Balayan replied: “The first changes were made in 1995. The drafting of constitutional amendments was carried out at a time of war, in difficult social conditions when it was impossible to take into account all the problems and challenges facing people at that time and the problems to arise later”.

“In 2003 a constitutional reform referendum was held as well, and it was not popular among the public. Those draft amendments were developed at the request of the Council of Europe to abolish the death penalty and also to establish the institution of human rights defender. A somewhat amended version of the Constitution was put to a referendum in 2005 and adopted by citizens. The current draft constitutional amendments raise some question from an institutional point of view , and no explanations have been provided so far,” Balayan said.

As was reported, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on August 21 sent the draft constitutional amendments to the country’s parliament. The draft was developed by the Special Commission on Constitutional Reforms adjunct to Armenian President. Following the debates, the Armenian parliament adopted on October 5 the draft decision of the National Assembly on its consent for the document to be put to a referendum. The decision was passed by a majority of the votes: 104 MPs voted in favor, 10 against, with 3 abstentions. The draft was supported by the factions of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), and opposition ARF-

Dashnaktsutyun (ARFD) and Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP). Opposition factions ‘Heritage’ and ‘Armenian National Congress (ANC), and 2 MPs of opposition faction ‘Orinats Yerkir’ voted against. The Armenian president set December 6, 2015 as the date for the constitutional referendum. The campaign for the constitutional reform in Armenia began on October 10 and will end at midnight of December 4.