ARM-2002-1-001

a) Armenia / b) Constitutional Court / c)  / d) 22-02-2002 / e) DCC-350 / f) On the conformity of obligations stated in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms signed on 4^th November 1950 at Rome, in the Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms signed on 20^th March 1952 at Paris, in Protocol no. 4 "On certain rights and freedoms other than those already included in the Convention and in the first Protocol thereto, as amended Protocol no. 11", signed on 16^th September 1963 at Strasbourg, and Protocol no. 7 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, signed on 22^nd November 1984 with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia / g) Tegekagir (Official Gazette) / h) CODICES (English).

Keywords of the Systematic Thesaurus:

Keywords of the alphabetical index:

Treaty, obligation / Obligation, international / State, duty to protect / Pacta sunt servanda.

Headnotes:

The Constitution, providing for human rights and freedoms itself, does not restrict the right of individuals to also enjoy other rights and freedoms enshrined in international treaties on human rights.

Summary:

The Constitutional Court considered the issue of conformity of obligations stated in the European Convention on Human Rights and its several protocols with the Constitution. The Court's examination ascertained that some of the rights and fundamental freedoms stated in the Convention and said protocols correspond to those guaranteed by the Constitution, while some of the rights and freedoms are stated in the Constitution but in a different manner and formulation. On the other hand, some rights established in the Convention and its Protocols are absent from the Constitution.

The essence of the difference between constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms and those enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, is that the Conventional and Protocol norms protect human rights and freedoms more extensively.

Although at the first sight it may seem that there is a contradiction of a normative nature between the different legal instruments, such an impression is false if one considers the whole legislative system and the obligations of international treaties: a unique intercommunicated legal system.

In this regard, [ENG-ARM-A-6] Article 6 of the Constitution states that, "International treaties that contradict the Constitution may be ratified after making a corresponding amendment to the Constitution". Furthermore, it should also be adopted as an obligatory initial provision regulating the constitutional relations, as is required by [ENG-ARM-A-4] Article 4 of the Constitution, which declares: "The State guarantees protection of human rights and freedoms based on the Constitution and the laws, in accordance with the principles and norms of international law". This constitutional provision means that the Republic of Armenia is obliged to conscientiously carry out its obligations arising from principles and norms of international law, including international treaty obligations (Pacta sunt servanda).

The International Pact of 16 December 1966 on Civil and Political Rights and the facultative protocol thereto, as well as the International Pact of 16 December 1966 on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as international, all-encompassing documents providing for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as their possible limitation or derogation, are legally binding in the Republic of Armenia.

Thus, in accordance with  [ENG-ARM-A-4] Articles 4 and  [ENG-ARM-A-43] 43 of the Constitution, the provisions of the above-mentioned international instruments do form part of the legal system of norms and principles regulating constitutional-legal relations.

This condition may create the illusion of apparent contradiction between  [ENG-ARM-A-4] Articles 4 and  [ENG-ARM-A-6] 6.6 of the Constitution.

However, there is no contradiction as [ENG-ARM-A-43] Article 43 of the Constitution provides that "the rights and freedoms set forth in the Constitution are not exhaustive and shall not be construed to exclude other universally accepted human and civil rights and freedoms". In other words, a citizen of the Republic of Armenia - or a person being under its jurisdiction - not only has the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, but also such rights and freedoms which are the logical continuation of the rights and freedoms stated by the Constitution or an additional guarantee of the implementation of the latter.

The ground for this interpretation is that a possible collision of the provisions of the Constitution and any international treaty supposes that the Constitution either directly excludes the right, which is clearly determined by an international treaty, or imposes such a behaviour, which is categorically prohibited by a treaty. There is no such collision in the view of above-mentioned rights.

The Constitutional Court also considered that regardless of the norms of Public International Law, states are bound by mutual obligations, yet the approach towards the protection of human rights, formed in the system of Public International Law, gives grounds to conclude that the human rights and fundamental freedoms, based on the system of multilateral conventions, are rather the objective standards of the behaviour of states, than their mutual rights and obligations. The obligations of states, stemming from international instruments, are rather directed to individuals under the jurisdiction of these states than to other participating states. In this regard, the Convention of 4 November 1950 is used to protect persons and non-governmental organisations from the organs of state power, which is an important sign of the rule of law, stated by [ENG-ARM-A-1] Article 1 of the Constitution. Moreover, the Convention and its Protocols are based on such rights and standards, which conform to the spirit and letter of human rights and fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the international treaties to which the Republic of Armenia is party.

The whole legal regime of the Convention, including the principles on the possible limitation of the guaranteed rights, are constructed on that initial provision that the obligations adopted by the State are directed to the protection of all individuals, in accordance with the norms and principles of international law. Consequently, taking into account [ENG-ARM-A-4] Article 4 of the Constitution, obliging the State to guarantee all internationally recognised rights and freedoms; [ENG-ARM-A-43] Article 43 of the Constitution, stating that the rights and freedoms enumerated by the Constitution are not exhaustive, meaning that a citizen or other person do have other universally recognised rights and freedoms, and accepting the fact that the constitutional norms on human rights and freedoms do not have a prohibiting, but an authorising nature; it can be said that the issued conventional and Protocol norms conform to the norms and principles on human rights and fundamental freedoms, set forth in the Constitution.

Languages:

Armenian, English, Russian (translations by the Court).