YEREVAN. – The Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) of Armenia has appealed to the Constitutional Court, arguing that a flexible mechanism for properly enforcing the constitutional requirement to hear cases in a reasonable time is not provided for by the Judicial Code of the country.

It refers to Article 9 of the Code, where the circumstances considered are only established when deciding the reasonableness of the length of the proceedings in court. This article does not stipulate the legislative possibility of restoring the infringed right to a fair trial within a reasonable time. It turns out that under the current legislative regulations, the trial of a case in the court can be delayed for many years and will remain without consequence for the court.

According to the Human Rights Defender, the existing legislative gap does not provide for the full realization of the constitutional right to hear a case within a reasonable time. This, in turn, results in the unnecessary curtailing of effective measures for legal protection provided by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.