
European Courts Rules Against Armenia in "Gay-Bashing" Case
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) today issued a judgment against Armenia, finding a violation of the right to respect for private and family life and the prohibition of discrimination. The government is required to pay fourteen citizens 28,000 euros (2,000 euros each) for non-pecuniary damage, as well as 1,067 euros in legal costs.
On May 16, 2014, Radio Liberty held an online press conference on Facebook, during which Inga and Anush Arshakyan, members of the Armenian jury for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014, announced that they had given the lowest scores to Conchita Wurst, a gay man who had won that year’s contest. They had made offensive remarks about the winner. Some of the press conference participants, including a group of activists, left comments on the Facebook page of the press conference.
On May 17, 2014, an article titled “They Serve the Interests of the International Homosexual Lobby: The Blacklist of Enemies of the Nation and the State” was posted on the website of the Iravunk newspaper.
The Iravunk editor, who wrote the article, also published a blacklist of those who harassed the Arshakyans on the Facebook conference page.
The article included the following passage:
“There is only one way to stop the onslaught of these lobbyists: ZERO TOLERANCE. Regardless of whether they were paid, forced or brainwashed to become gay-campaign-supporting zombies. All that is irrelevant; every lobbyist is an internal enemy of the Nation and the State. That’s it.”
Sixteen Armenian nationals filed a class action lawsuit at Yerevan’s Court of General Jurisdiction against the Iravunk newspaper, demanding compensation for the damage caused to their honor and dignity, and five million drams in compensation.
The court rejected the lawsuit, arguing that the entire set of essential facts related to the specific goal of defaming honor and dignity had not been proven. The Court of Appeals left the verdict of the first instance court unchanged, and the Court of Cassation did not accept the appeal for proceedings.
Fourteen of them then applied to the European Court of Human Rights, since the article published in the newspaper and subsequent articles amounted to harassment and hate speech and interfered with their private life, while the state failed to provide protection in this regard, violating the relevant provisions of the European Convention.
The Armenian government’s position in the ECHR was that the domestic courts had based their decisions on case law, according to which even insulting, shocking or disturbing ideas are protected as a manifestation of freedom of expression. In addition, they noted that the applicants had failed to prove that they had been subjected to discrimination.
The ECHR noted that the concept of “private life” is a broad term that is not subject to exhaustive definition. It encompasses the physical and psychological integrity of a person, and therefore can include many aspects of a person’s physical and social identity. A person’s sexual orientation and sexual life belong to the private sphere.
The ECHR ruling stated that the article, published on May 17, 2014, contained hostility towards LGBT people and attacks on those defending their rights, describing it as irresponsible journalism.
The ECHR concluded that Armenian courts “gave full weight to the author’s right to freedom of expression and little to no importance to the effect of his statements on the applicants and their private life.”
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