YEREVAN. – Judges are to protect people’s rights but often people have to protect themselves from courts, says the report of the Armenian Ombudsman Karen Andreasyan.

Andreasyan stressed around 40% of appeals to the ombudsman’s office concerned protection of right for fair legal proceedings.

“Because of the injustice of individual judges, in the terms of obvious omissions from the highest judicial leadership and imperfection of the judicial system, people lose their sense of justice and, therefore, get disappointed in all public institutions,” he said.

The ombudsman stressed that a judge is not free in Armenia as he can be pressurized by leadership of judicial system.

According to Andreasyan, the only tool to restraint injustice is the European Court of Human Rights and the evidence thereof is increase in appeals to this institution.