MCA Monitor Blog

Hi, I'm on the ground in Armenia and no, it doesn't appear as though much is changing in the area of ruling justly, save for a lot of declarations.

Anyway, I blog from Armenia and sometimes the surrounding region at http://oneworld.blogsome.com.

You might also want to check out the following news sites for the latest from Armenia.

http://www.armenialiberty.org
http://www.hetq.am

Cheers,

With regards to the correspondence between the MCC and the Armenian government regarding the backsliding on democracy in Armenia, I would like to make a few points:

1. It is good that in his letter, Amb. Danilovich points out the very problematic examples of backsliding on democracy that are currently occurring in Armenia. However, these problems are not ad-hoc and do not appear occasionally - they have been tendencies and trends that have been detected and reported on repeatedly. To expect that a two-letter exchange where one side points out the problems will result in a true commitment to improvement by the other side (which still mentions how well everything is going in the country), is not realistic or advisable. There must be a mechanism and openness within the MCC to respond to the reported and detected deterioration of democracy in a country in a more coherent and expedient way. The MCC needs specific benchmarks against which the government's performance can be measured. One benchmark could be the Council of Europe requirements to which Armenia has committed (but not sufficiently met.)

The performance evaluation that the MCC stakes its decisions on is too delayed. There are ways to more comprehensively and consistently monitor the deterioration of democracy, and there are capacities within Armenia to engage in this.

2. A number of things that minister Oskanyan states should be contested, one example being putting the blame on the opposition, which is unfair and hypocritical.

Firstly, the control that the executive branch has over the electoral commission and local committees is so great (by law, and not even considering other leverages of control) that it is in the executive branch's full capacity and responsibility not to allow fraud, if there is any such intention.

Secondly, why not go after the fraud through independent investigation by the prosecutor's office?

Thirdly, indeed elections are not the only democratic practice, as the minister states, but if the country and the specific government fails constantly and without exception to conduct somewhat "OK" elections, then it becomes THE issue rather than one of the issues.

Fourthly, indeed the opposition blew its chance at monitoring, but what about the resilient opposition of the government to invite OSCE monitors?

Besides, it is becoming common in this country to blame the opposition for everything: imperfect quality of draft constitutional amendments - the opposition is responsible; fraud in the voting process - opposition to blame again... It looks like the government as such is entitled to do bad things and the opposition has an obligation to improve it by investigating the cases, delivering them to competent entities and so on... Also, the weakness of the opposition is to a large extent the direct result of the long-lasting and unhampered monopolization of political power and decision-making process in the country through legislative and practical mechanisms.

3. Amb. Danilovich's letter says nothing about the scandalous situation of the broadcast media in Armenia and the jeopardy that this poses for the 2007 elections. And there is no concrete commitment made from the Armenian side to take real steps.

4. Minister Oskanyan's letter has not been publicized - in fact, it is not even posted in the Armenian language. This is quite telling about how much the government cares about public participation.

In his letter, Amb. Danilovich "assesses" the actions taken by the Armenian government to re-establish its commitment to democracy. We believe that if - after such a referendum and in the midst of a reported deterioration of democracy in Armenia - the compact is to go forward, there should be a real attempt and push from the MCC to empower independent civil society monitoring and to listen to and hear local civil society concerns.

There are a number of very concrete and overstressed measures that had to be taken care of long ago, and yet despite all high-profile resolutions by the government, these remain unresolved. Many of these measures lie in the framework of the Council of Europe commitments and the Council's further resolutions on failing to honor those in full. Furthermore, there is a monitoring report to be released this week on how these commitments were not honored in full.

OSI-Armenia has also developed and presented to the government concrete suggestions for democratization (human rights, media justice system, territorial gov., elections). This is another very concrete source.

The bottom line is that IF (and this is a very big 'if') the MCC wants to get serious, and follow its vague discontent expressed in the first letter, the above is what they need to start from. Not to mention alternative monitoring of its own compact.