Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

Conscript T.S. has a serious heart condition, however, the diagnosis he was given during 2020 winter call-up did not reflect his health state. The Central Medical Commission conducted an examination and concluded that T.S. was fit for military service with limitations, whereas as a result of proper examination of the conscript’s health problems, he should have been granted a deferral to get treatment in accordance with point A of Article 28 of the RA Government’s decision 404 of 2018. The Central Medical Commission made a decision on the conscript’s fitness without objectively and fully examining his health state. 

Disagreeing with the CMC’s conclusion on his health state, the conscript refused to be drafted for military service. As a result, on 26 April 2021, a criminal case was initiated against him for avoiding a regular military service call-up, and  a forensic medical examination was appointed in the frame of the charge.

Encountering all these problems while protecting his rights, T.S. applied to HCAV. Besides providing the conscript with legal advice, HCAV also addressed a letter to the RA Ministry of Defense to clarify issues related to his health state, drawing attention to the condition that not all data obtained as a result of the examination was recorded in medical documents, and that an objective and necessary examination had not been conducted prior to making a decision on his fitness for military service. However, without any substantiation, the Ministry of Defense found that the decision was lawful and that the conscript was subject to be drafted to military service. 

Whereas, the diagnosis given in the conclusion of the forensic medical examination appointed in the frame of the criminal case to identify the conscript’s health state essentially differed from the conclusion provided by the CMC conclusion during winter call-up of 2020. After that, based on the CMC’s conclusion given as a result of other necessary examinations conducted during summer 2022 call-up, the conscript will be granted a one-year deferral to get treatment.

Thus, it turns out that having a serious heart condition and being subject to a deferral to get treatment, conscript T.S. could have been drafted to military service, had he not expressed his disagreement with CMC’s obviously unlawful decision violating his rights and freedoms.