The CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia (hereinafter referred to as the Coalition) expresses its concern over the continuous manifestations of the creeping behavior of corruption in the country, which occurs in the manifestations of legislative and administrative corruption. The Coalition has warned about this many times and noted that these actions clearly affect the corruption perception index.
Recently, the RA National Assembly adopted and put into effect a number of legislative amendments and additions “On Amendments and Additions to the RA Code on Administrative Offenses” (K-761-15.01.2024-PI-011) with the attached legislative package (which includes the Laws “On Making Amendments and Additions to the RA Code on Administrative Procedure” (K-7611-15.01.2024-PI-011), “On Making an Addition to the Law of the Republic of Armenia on Fundamentals of Administrative Action and Administrative Procedure” (K-7612-15.01.2024-PI- 011) and “On Amendments and Additions to the Law on Compulsory Enforcement of Judicial Acts” (http://www.parliament.am/register.php?AgendaID=701&day=08&month=02&year=2024&lang=#08.02.2024 the 3rd discussed issue), the main objective of which is to reduce fines imposed for violating traffic rules, simplify administration and reduce the workload of administrative courts.
Accordingly:
- If the citizen pays at least 70 percent of the imposed fine within 15 days from the day following the notification, then the obligation to pay the fine will be considered fully fulfilled, except for the case of appealing the decision to impose an administrative penalty (that is, a 30 percent discount will apply to the imposed fine) (this change came into effect on 5 April, 2024),
- If the citizens submit an acceptable e-mail address through the Roadpolice.am application, then a notice of administrative penalty will be sent to that address, as a result of which the originally planned fine will be reduced by 20 percent (this change is expected to take effect on 1 July),
- Other changes regarding appeals related to fines are also planned, according to which the appeals of the offense and the subsequent legal proceedings are carried out only in written procedure,
- In case of payment of 50 percent of the fine and the corresponding enforcement cost for the administrative offenses specified in the above-mentioned law, submitted to the enforcement service until 5 April, 2024, the obligation is considered completely fulfilled.
The Coalition believes that the aforementioned changes contradict the imperative requirements of at least the following articles of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia:
- Article 50. Right to Proper Administrative Action
- Everyone shall have the right to impartial and fair examination by administrative bodies of a case concerning him or her, within a reasonable time period.
- In the course of administrative proceedings everyone shall have the right to get familiar with all documents concerning him or her.
- State and local self-government bodies and officials shall be obliged to hear the person prior to the adoption of an interfering individual act thereon.
- Article 63. Right to Fair Trial
- Everyone shall have the right to a fair, public and reasonable trial of their case by an independent and impartial tribunal.
The Coalition qualifies these changes as a refusal to implement proper administrative action by the RA state bodies, a violation of the Constitutional Rights of the RA citizens, as a result of which:
- the increase in traffic violations is encouraged,
- This does not contribute to solving the main objective of the RA Law “On Ensuring Road Safety”, which is: the protection of the life, health and property of citizens, their rights and lawful interests, the interest of the public and the State by preventing threats to road traffic safety, particularly traffic accidents, alleviating their severity and consequences.
- The most important principles defined by Article 1, Part 5 of the RA Law “On Ensuring Road Safety” are not observed ,
- RA citizens who commit crimes are partially exempted from the responsibility initially provided by the law,
- The constitutional rights of law-abiding and conscientious citizens of the Republic of Armenia are violated.
And finally, the Coalition believes that the main purpose of these changes is to quickly and unfairly generate revenues for the RA state budget, as took place at the beginning of this year, with the change of the 2024 rates of local fees for paid parking lots in the Yerevan community.
Based on the aforementioned, the Coalition proposes to:
- The President of the Republic of Armenia to freeze the effect of the aforementioned legislative amendments and to appeal to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia to discuss the issue of their compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia,
- The Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia to discuss the above-mentioned legislative amendments on the issue of compliance with the legal regulations of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the RA Constitution and accordingly apply to the RA Constitutional Court.
Governing Board of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia
Note: The CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia is a professional civil society structure, which was founded on 28 November 2014 in Yerevan. The Coalition currently has 50 civil society organizations, and the Secretariat is run by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association.