Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression

Read more: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (April 2020). Analysis of the Draft Laws Amending the Defamation Legislation in the Republic of Armenia. www.osce.org/files/f/documents/f/9/67858.pdf.

Freedom of expression is a key human right, in particular because of its fundamental role in underpinning democracy. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (“UDHR”),[1] a United Nations General Assembly resolution, guarantees the right to freedom of expression in the following terms:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”),[2] ratified by the Republic of Armenia in 1993, elaborates on many of the rights set out in the UDHR, imposing formal legal obligations on State Parties to respect its provisions. Article 19 of the ICCPR guarantees the right to freedom of expression in terms very similar to those found in Article 19 of the UDHR. Freedom of expression is also protected in the three regional human rights systems, Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (European Convention)[3], which was ratified by the Republic of Armenia in 2002, Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights[4] and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.[5]

[1] UN General Assembly Resolution 217A(III), adopted 10 December 1948.
[2] UN General Assembly Resolution 2200A(XXI), adopted 16 December 1966, in force 23 March 1976.
[3] Adopted 4 November 1950, in force 3 September 1953.
[4] Adopted 22 November 1969, in force 18 July 1978.
[5] Adopted 26 June 1981, in force 21 October 1986.