In Armenia, the changes in the constitutional set-up introduced following the referendum of December 2015 will increase the role of parliament and may lead to a more inclusive political process, says the annual report on human rights and state of democracy issued by Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland.

“However, democratic culture and dialogue with civil society were still considered weak throughout this crucial reform process,” the report says.

Overall, the report indicated that human rights, democracy and security are threatened across the continent. Armenia is mentioned in the report in the context of independence of the judiciary, cyber-security, constitutional reform and social rights.

The report mentions that Armenia introduced broad reforms, criminalising attempts to influence a judge and introducing the obligation on judges to report all such attempts, however reports persist regarding the lack of independence of the judiciary in practice. The report of the Commissioner for Human Rights following his visit to Armenia refers to examples of “interference by senior judicial instances in the work of lower-court judges”, as well as “from external actors such as the executive power at central and local levels (including law enforcement agencies)”.

Armenia is also mentioned in the context of implementing territorial consolidation reforms of various tiers of government. According to the report, Armenia and Ukraine started reforms aimed both at amalgamating and encouraging co-operation among municipalities.

The report also says there is still no effective remedy for violations of the right to freedom of assembly by law-enforcement officials, and investigations into misconduct by law-enforcement personnel in the context of assemblies are not common practice or are ineffective. Secretary General recalls that PACE has called on “the Armenian authorities ... to transparently investigate any allegations of excessive use of force by the police during recent demonstrations”.