(Read the full article at 168.am)

After receiving a “steel mandate” during the parliamentary elections in 2021, the authorities have started the unacceptable and inadmissible practice of setting literally “steel” bans on fundamental human rights and liberties and free speech, 168.am says.

On the last working day, the outgoing parliament of Armenia made hasty amendments to a number of laws, the meaning of which is to criminalize swearing targeted at officials and set far-fetched fines for this, and, as a result, Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia HO-528-N of 18 April 2003 was supplemented with a new article, that is, Article 137, says 168.am.

Alongside this, the newly forming administration of the National Assembly is already taking active steps to essentially restrict the activities of journalists in parliament.

In reality, these legislative initiatives individually fit in the framework of the logic of the authorities’ practice which is democratic in terms of form and undemocratic in terms of substance and which, as a matter of fact, has been applied for years under the patronage of countries and organizations that have silently patronized this and are apologists for human rights protection in Armenia. This policy, which the authorities have adopted, contradicts the Constitution of Armenia, as well as the universal norms of fundamental human rights and liberties and the several conventions that are targeted at the protection of those rights and liberties.