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In its decision in the case of Gyulumyan and Others v. Armenia, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has unanimously declared the application inadmissible. The decision is final, the court said in a press release on Thursday.

The case concerned the termination of the four applicants’ terms of office at the Constitutional Court in 2020, following constitutional amendments which had not been subject to judicial review.

The applicants brought complaints essentially under Article 6 § 1 (right of access to court) and Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The ECHR found that even though the applicants’ claim had concerned an arguable right under Armenian law, namely their entitlement to serve their full terms of office until retirement, their exclusion from access to a court had been justified on objective grounds. In particular, their terms of office had been ended through a constitutional amendment, which had been part of broader reform and which had not been directed against them specifically.

Furthermore, there had been no significant impact on their private lives: one of the applicants – formerly President of the Constitutional Court – had remained in office as a judge of the Constitutional Court, while the other three applicants were entitled to a full pension, regardless of their age. Nor was there any evidence of the authorities having singled out any of the applicants with negative remarks about their professional performance, personality or moral values.