The Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia confirmed the fact of violation of the Freedom of Information Center’s right to receive information by the Yerevan Municipality.

FOICA applied to the Human Rights Defender asking for assistance in restoring the violated right of information. For three months, starting from August, 2021 FOICA has been trying to get information from the Municipality about an activities of an illegally exploited stone factory and seizure of the land of the community. Several requests and even complaints submitted to the Municipality were not properly processed.

As a result of the proceedings, the Ombudsman decided:

• The Human Rights Defender considers principal the provision of the answers to the requests for information in complete, quality way, within deadlines, as well as to provide the bases of denials and, in general, the attitude of public bodies towards those inquiries.
• Aforementioned approach by public authorities may form a practice leading to the risk of continuing to provide incomplete information or refusing to provide information in general.
• Therefore, every State or local authority body is obliged to respond responsibly to requests for information, to ensure its complete and proper provision, which will guarantee the proper exercise of the right to receive information enshrined in the Constitution, laws and international documents.
• As for the issue of illegal land use, it is necessary to refer to Article 59, Part 1, Clause 1 of the Law Of The Republic of Armenia on Local Self-Government according to which the Mayor organizes the suspension and elimination of illegal land use by heads of administrative districts.
• Thus, after the above-mentioned legal regulation, suspension and elimination of illegal land use in the city of Yerevan is the responsibility of the Mayor of Yerevan, so the answer of Shushan Doydoyan’s request is also in the competence of the Municipality of Yerevan.
• The Defender states that by not providing a proper, complete response to the Freedom of Information Center NGO President Shushan Doydoyan’s requests, the Yerevan Municipality violated her right to receive information stated by the RA Constitution, the RA Law on Freedom of Information, and international documents.

By the same decision, the Defender proposed to the Yerevan Municipality to provide proper and complete information to the requests discussed within the framework of the given decision.

Тhe Ombudsman Decision (Armenian)