Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

HCA Vanadzor finds problematic adoption of the Draft Law on Making Amendments and Addenda to the RA Law on Military Service and Status of a Serviceman (hereinafter referred to as “the Draft”). 

As justification for adoption of the legal act, the Draft presents the need for specifying the process of notifying citizens to appear in their military enlistment place in the frame of organization and implementation of compulsory military service call-up and reserve preparation. 

As author of the Draft, the RA Ministry of Defense notes that formats of giving proper notifications are not clearly defined, and informing a citizen by a public notification is not envisaged.

It should be mentioned that avoiding a compulsory military service  or alternative service call-up entails criminal liability, therefore notification means should comply with the RA criminal legislation. 

The RA Criminal Procedure Code does not envisage grounds for public notification in case of committing any act envisaged under the Criminal Code. Therefore, establishing a particular notification procedure for any act under the RA Criminal Code does not pursue any lawful goal per se. 

In this case, notification means specified by the Draft, namely, presented as a document or individually or publicly as established by law, were not defined with conjunction “and”, rather, they were defined with conjunction “or”, thus giving an opportunity to arbitrarily choose the notification means. 

A citizen’s proper notification should be ensured for participation in compulsory military or alternative service call-ups, and irrespective of the chosen means of notifying, the notification must make it possible to prove the fact that the citizen has been notified, which means that necessary adequate measures should be taken to assure a citizen’s right to be informed.

In this case, the RA criminal procedure does not envisage any public notification procedure for any action. 

Read more at https://hcav.am/13-02-2024/