FIDH voices concerns over effective remedy

“The objective of our visit to Armenia is not to shake hands with officials,” said before the FIDH 37th Congress-Forum’s beginning Mrs. Souhayr Belhassen, FIDH president.

She said that the organisation firstly has concerns over themes related to the right to an effective remedy and the theme related to its influence on political prisoners.

“Referring to Armenia, the point is to put together facts, related to the March 1 2008 clashes and in what conditions all that happened,” Souhayr Belhassen said adding that there are people, who were brought to a trial being accused after testimonial evidences by policemen, and there are those, who want to cast light on the situation; these are, in particular, journalists, who put themselves in jeopardy, according to FIDH President.

“We’ll make our efforts to solve problems of political prisoners in Armenia,” said Souhayr Belhassen pointing that she had met with political prisoners’ families and saw the situation. “Firstly, I am interested in the issue of freedom of speech,” she added.

It’s worth mentioning that the FIDH 37th Congress-Forum, entitled ‘Justice, the new challenges. The right to an Effective Remedy Before an Independent Tribunal’, was kicked off today in Armenian capital city of Yerevan, gathering together nearly 300 participants.