Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

HCAV presents an opinion on adoption of draft law “On making addenda to the RA Code of Administrative Offences” submitted for public discussion on October 30, 2024. 

The Organization has recorded several problems and observations on the regulations proposed by the Draft. 

The draft proposes to amend Chapter 13 of the Republic of Armenia’s Code on Administrative Offenses dated December 6, 1985, titled "Administrative Offenses Against Public Order," by adding a new article: causing intolerance or discrimination, which would result in a fine ranging from twenty to one hundred times the minimum salary. The draft aims to regulate manifestations of hate speech of lesser severity, which do not reach the threshold defined by the Criminal Code, within the framework of administrative legal mechanisms.

According to the justification for the adoption of the draft, as a result of the adoption of the draft, manifestations of hate speech of lesser severity, which do not reach the threshold defined by the Criminal Code  will be regulated within the framework of administrative legal mechanisms. 

Article 329 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia is entitled:

“Public speech aimed at inciting or propagating hatred, discrimination, intolerance or hostility, as well as distributing materials or objects for that purpose” according to which: “Public speech aimed at inciting or propagating hatred, discrimination, intolerance or hostility against a person or group of persons based on racial, national, ethnic or social origin, religion, political or other views or other circumstances of a personal or social nature, as well as distributing materials or objects for that purpose (…).

The draft proposes to add an article with the following content to the Code of the Republic of Armenia on Administrative Offenses: “Causing intolerance or discrimination”, according to which:  “Any public behavior towards a person or group of persons that causes intolerance or discrimination due to racial, national, ethnic or social origin, religion, political or other views, or other circumstances of a personal or social nature, if these violations do not give rise to criminal liability by their nature, shall result in the imposition of a fine in the amount of twenty to one hundred times the minimum wage. 

The justifications of the draft states “As the current Criminal Legislation includes the severe cases of hate speech, the less severe cases can be regulated within the administrative legislation”. 

As we can see, the act manifested by the objective side of the administrative offense proposed by the Draft and the crime defined by Part 1 of Article 329 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia are not clearly separated, therefore it is not clear in which case criminal or administrative liability arises. 

As we can see, the act manifested by the objective side of the administrative offense proposed by the Draft and the crime defined by Part 1 of Article 329 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia are not clearly separated, therefore it is not clear in which case criminal or administrative liability arises.

As for the justification mentioned in the draft regulation, it is proposed to use the term “cause” as a collective term, which, unlike the term “incite” used in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, is an objective aspect of the crime, since the latter is more neutral and contains a less offensive content of the act”, then the terms “cause” and “incite” both contain “offensive content” and the act conditioned by the mentioned term alone cannot have a lower degree of public danger than the crime provided for by the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia.

An administrative offense, although it differs from a crime in a lower degree of public danger, is nevertheless an unlawful act (omission), therefore, the acts prohibited by the Code on Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia must be clearly defined. The two mentioned codes must operate in harmony and complement each other, otherwise, when qualifying acts (misdemeanor or crime) and assigning punishment, gross violations of human rights will occur.

Therefore, taking into account the above, we propose to withdraw the draft.