EcoLur
Armenian Ombudsman Karen Andreasyan considers not holding inspections by Nature Protection Ministry in “Teghout” CJSC as dereliction of duties. In this regards, Ombudsman report “On Human Rights Defender’s Activities and Violation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in Armenia for 2014” says, “Carrying out environmental inspections in “Teghout” CJSC has been delayed for two years without any lawful grounds, which violated citizens’ right to remedy before governmental bodies.”
The Ministry have assured many times (around two years) that “Teghout” CJSC is included in the list of the companies subject to environmental inspection by State Environmental Inspection of Nature Protection Ministry in 2013, 2014 and 2015, nevertheless, so far no inspections have been carried out.
The problem is that a number of environmentalists have beaten an alarm signal that Teghout mining project is carried out not in compliance with the positive environmental expertise no. BP-135 dated on 7 November 2006, but on the basis of the amended project of 2010, which didn’t undergo statutory procedures and environmental expertise. Moreover, the project deviations of ungrounded mining activities caused damage to the Republic of Armenia, Teghout and Shnogh communities and community residents, according to the complaints.
The Ministry hasn’t performed its statutory duties to prove the opposite, particularly it didn’t study the complaints and application of the citizens, organizations, governmental and local government bodies and didn’t proceed with them. Thus, the Ministry has violated the right of citizens to effective remedy of their rights and freedoms in front of governmental bodies.
Proposal: in reasonable time limits to ensure conducting statutory inspections in “Teghout” CJSC, as well as to supervise the compliance of Teghout mining with the requirements of the Armenian legislation.
April 08, 2015 at 16:02