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MINISTERS’ DEPUTIES |
Decisions |
CM/Del/Dec(2024)1514/H46-5 |
5 December 2024 |
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1514th meeting, 3-5 December 2024 (DH)
H46-5 Virabyan group v. Armenia (Application No. 40094/05) Supervision of the execution of the European Court’s judgments
Reference documents |
Decisions
The Deputies
1. recalled that these cases concern mainly substantive and procedural violations of Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention on account of ill-treatment, torture or death in police custody and the lack of effective investigations into these incidents;
As regards individual measures
2. noted with deep regret that no further individual measures are possible in the cases of Nalbandyan and Gulyan, in which despite all the measures taken by the authorities following the Court’s judgments, it was not possible to obtain sufficient evidence to prove ill-treatment or identify the perpetrators, and in the case of Yengibaryan and Simonyan on account of the expiration of the statute of limitations for the acts committed in 2011; and decided to close their supervision by adopting Final Resolution CM/ResDH(2024)330;
3. with regard to the case of Davtyan (No. 54261/13), noted clarifications provided by the authorities on
18 November 2024 as concerns the individual measures in response to the Article 3 violation, with a view to their further assessment by the Secretariat, and invited the authorities to submit updated information on the individual measures taken in response to the violation of Article 6;
4. in the cases of Davtyan (No. 30779/13),Arsenyan and Vardanyan and Khalafyan, called the authorities to rapidly complete the pending proceedings and keep the Committee informed on their progress and outcome, underlining yet again that the swiftness of the authorities’ actions with regard to the reopened investigations is crucial to avoid the loss of evidence due to the passage of time;
As regards general measures
5. recalled their previous decisions welcoming the authorities’ determination and legislative, institutional and practical measures taken to address the violations found by the Court in this group of cases;
6. encouraged the authorities to continue with determination further promotion of the “zero-tolerance” policy among all the police officers and staff of the investigative bodies, including the Investigative Committee and the Anti-Corruption Committee;
7. requested the authorities to provide updated information on the following:
· statistical data, disaggregated by articles of the Criminal Code and the state officials concerned, including on the outcome of the cases sent to court;
· progress in the development of the anonymous referral mechanism for complaints about alleged ill-treatment in police detention facilities and adoption of the relevant amendments to the Law on Holding Arrested and Detained Persons;
· practical training of Police Guard staff to ensure that force is applied in a manner compliant with Article 3 of the Convention and the authorities’ compliance with their obligation to minimise the risk of loss of life;
· progress in the implementation of the police reform, in context of the general measures taken within this group of cases;
8. noting the important developments and progress achieved through a series of general measures adopted to address ill-treatment by police and ineffective investigations, decided to close their supervision of the Virabyan case by the above Final Resolution, and to continue the examination of the remaining individual and general measures in the framework of the Vardanyan and Khalafyan group of cases;
9. decided to resume the examination of this group of cases at one of their Human Rights meetings in 2026 at the latest.