03 April 2008
“Iravunk, Investigation” Newspaper
“Viewpoints of Pupils on Constitution”
On 20 March 2008 the Law Foundation of Armenia (LFA) in cooperation with “The Future is Yours” Charitable NGO had organized a discussion on “Constitutional Reforms from Viewpoint of Pupils” for the pupils of the 10th form of school # 55 after A.P. Chekhov. Miss Syuzanna Soghomonyan, representative of the Law Foundation of Armenia, facilitated this discussion on democracy, civil society and human rights protection issues. At the end of the discussion the Law Foundation of Armenia announced a contest “Constitutional Reforms from Viewpoint of Pupils. The pupils introduced written reports of comparative analyses of Constitutional reforms.
When summarizing the results of the Contest, the LFA representatives were amazed with the deep knowledge of the pupils as well as with the timely ideas in regard of the Constitution, which they expressed. In particular Gor Sargsyan, pupil of 10/3 form of the school emphasized the importance of environmental protection issue by the state. His classmate Armen Sahakayan had referred to the problem of double citizenship and suggested an interesting solution. Hovik Martirosyan and Armine Badeyan, who had introduced a joint report proposed amendment of the constitutional provision, which referred to the President of the Republic. According to their suggestion the President shall be considered the MAIN guarantor of the independence, territorial integrity and security of the Republic of Armenia” and not simply the guarantor. They made this suggestion on the assumption of the provision that the Republic of Armenia Army, the National Security Service and other governmental bodies are also considered as guarantors of the independence, territorial integrity and security of the country. Nonna Zakoyan’s report referred to elimination of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment against other people. The author of another interesting report was Maryam Zadoyan, pupil of 10/1 form of the school. Her report touched the issues of some constitutional changes referring to judiciary power, in particular to the jury trial, specialized courts, court of highest resort, the institute of Advocates accredited at the Court of Cassation, as well as to formation and structure of the Council of Justice. In particular she discussed the issue of elimination of the institute of jury trial, and attached importance to the current order of formation of the Council of Justice, in compliance to which the President of the Republic of Armenia is no longer the Chairperson; the Minister of Justice, the Prosecutor General are not vice-chairpersons; and the prosecutors are not members of the Council of Justice.
The Law Foundation of Armenia awarded all six authors of the presented reports with certificates and prizes.
The report in Armenian language of Mariam Zadoyan, pupil of 10/1 form of school # 55 after A.P. Chekhov, which is an interesting and useful comparative analysis is available here.
Hamlet Hakobyan
