The RA Administrative Court will hear Peace Dialogue NGO’s lawsuit requesting to partially annull the executive order of the RA Minister of Defense.
The Administrative Court of Armenia started the proceedings of the case filed by Peace Dialogue NGO against the RA Ministry of Defense.
In February of 2015 the Administrative Court proceeded with a lawsuit filed by Peace Dialogue NGO against the RA Ministry of Defense. The lawsuit requests to obligate the Ministry of Defense to provide official information regarding the fatalities in the RA Armed Forces from 1994-2014 including the full names of the deceased soldiers, the location of the incident, the date, unit number, unit commander’s full name and title, the cause of death and all other unrestricted information.
The Ministry of Defense recently filed objections to Judge K. Zarikyan and Peace Dialogue NGO regarding this lawsuit. An examination of the objections shows that according to the recently signed Executive Order N9 issued by the RA Minister of Defense and dated July 9, 2015 there is a new and expanded list of information that is considered classified (State Secrets) by the Ministry of Defense. According to Section 17 of the new order (“Information about the functions of the Military Police, as well as about illegalities and incidents”) the information requested by the organization is considered classified information.
Point 42 and 43 of Section 17 of the same executive order state further that:
- The incidents in the Armed Forces, as well as the information revealing their causes are considered classified information, based on the level of their secrecy and given the changes in the political and operative situation of the country;
- Information revealing the investigation materials regarding the infringements in the Armed Forces is considered classified information, based on the level of their secrecy.
According to Peace Dialogue NGO, the information mentioned in Point 42 and Point 43 of N 9 executive order of the RA Minister of Defense and in the “Expanded list of departmental information system of the RA Ministry of Defense, appropriate to classification.” is not included in the list of the encrypted information provided by the RA Law on State and Official Secret, does not fit into the formulations prescribed by law and does not ensure the implementation of the provisions of the law.
The encryption of the information mentioned in Point 42 and Point 43 obviously does not aim at preventing possible arbitrariness of the law and does not guarantee the rights of the persons or the groups of people as it is provided by the RA Law on Fundamentals of Administrative Action and Administrative Proceedings.
The access to the information mentioned in Point 42 and Point 43 cannot impede the interests of national security, public order, crime prevention, public health and morality, constitutional rights and freedoms, and the protection of honor and reputation of the others since, according the RA Constitution, the fundamental rights and freedoms of the citizens can be restricted only by the mentioned reasons.
The classification of the information mentioned in Section 17, Point 42 and point 43 of the list approved by Executive Order N 9 of the Minister of Defense, contradicts the RA Constitution, the RA Law and the principles of international agreements ratified by Armenia.
Subsequently, the classification of the information mentioned in Section 17, Point 42 and point 43 of the list approved by Executive Order N 9 of the Minister of Defense, contradicts the RA Constitution, the RA Law and the principles of international agreements ratified by Armenia.
The classification of the mentioned information severely restricts the abilities of the public to exercise oversight over the activities of the RA Ministry of Defense and clearly separates the Ministry of Defense from the policy of transparency of state bodies adopted by Armenia.
Peace Dialogue NGO submitted a complaint to the Administrative court to challenge the legitimacy of the classification of secret information mentioned in Section 17, Section 42 and 43 of the list provided by Executive Order N9 and to partially annul the executive order.
The RA Administrative Court, presided by Judge Arman Dilanyan (Judges Mikayel Melkoumyan, Gevorg Sosyan, Aleksandra Haroutyunyan, Hrach Ayvazyan), acquainted themselves with the complaint filed by Peace Dialogue and the documents attached and found that there are no grounds for rejecting the complaint or redirecting it to other body as provided by the RA Administrative Procedural Code. Thus, the organization’s complaint was admitted.
Posted 23 October, 2015
