On February 23, 2016 the RA Constitutional Court (CC) made a decision to satisfy the application/appeal of Freedom of Information Center. With this decision the provisions of the RA “Law on State Registration of Rights of Property” were recognized opposing/contrary to the RA Constitution. The CC has confirmed that the information on the person cannot be sold by state authorities, specifically in this case, by the State Cadastre Committee.

The Constitutional Court has annulled Article 71 and Article 32 (2) (systematically affiliated with Article 71) of the above mentioned Law to the extent that they don’t define a differentiated approach when the information relates to a person requesting information about himself, as well as the realization of freedom of information guaranteed by the Law. This means that the information relating to a person should not be sold to him, therefore limiting a person’s right to receive information about himself. This also means that the principles set in the RA Law on “Freedom of Information”, which are guarantees of freedom of information, should not be limited.

The Constitutional Court has set November 1, 2016 as an invalidation date of the above mentioned Articles of the RA “Law on State Registration of Rights of Property”. By this date Law and other laws, normative legal acts’ legal regulations related to it should be adjusted/harmonized with the Court’s decision requirements. This means that till November 1, 2016 the above mentioned annulled Articles are functioning and citizens still need to be guided by them. It is the ultimate deadline, but the state bodies (the RA Parliament and Government) should eliminate the contradictions with the RA Constitution as soon as possible.

Freedom of Information center of Armenia Team