ANOTHER CASE OF NEW GENERATION NGO WAS COMMUNICATED BY ECHR. NEW GENERATION HUMANITARIAN NGO v. ARMENIA
On November 23, 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) communicated the claim of the New Generation Humanitarian NGO v. Armenia, which was submitted by Ara Ghazaryan, the attorney of the New Generation Humanitarian Organization (NGNGO).
The ECHR complaint was submitted on the basis of the violation of Article 6, Part 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
According to the decision of the ECHR, the RA government must answer the Court’s questions by March 22, 2024.
The description of the case.
In number 62 (2410) edition of “Iravunk” newspaper of 6-9 June 2014, an article was published under the rubric “Anti-national” and was titled “When the grant-sucker defenders of homosexuals receive state aid”. The beginning part of the article reads as follows in bold letters: “[I]t turns out that the Ministry of Sport and Youth extends the best NGO award to also those who call for “respect for human rights” and “an end to homophobia”, thus defend homosexuals. On 17 May, the humanitarian NGO “New Generation”, which the Ministry of Sport and Youth had awarded as organization of the year at the end of last year in the region of Shirak, made such a declaration. For what merit had this NGO – the defender of immoral human waste which last year had disgraced the Independence Day, that is 21 September, in Gyumri with its pacifist-tolerance-promoting campaign – been recognized as the best of the year, we tried to find out …..”/ literal quote from the article.
The middle of the article also displayed a photo of youngsters with the USA flag in their hands and brandishing a placard which contained the expression “No Hate Speech”. Under the photo, the caption read: “21 September 2013. “New Generation” NGO is in effect disgracing the Independence Day by holding a pacifist campaign. Mostly the demonstrators could be seen holding placards reading “No hate speech”. This is the number one motto of the lobbyists of homosexuals’ interests.” /literal quote from the article.
The article ends with the following sentence. “As they say, comments are unnecessary. I wonder if at least superficially, honorable gentlemen, you get acquainted with the website of the given NGO, and one more thing, with the signature of Deputy Minister A. Karamyan and his hand, the NGO receives a letter of praise…”.
On 13.06.2014 NGNGO submitted a denial request to “Iravunk Media” LLC, which remained unanswered.
On July 9, 2014, NGNGO filed a defamation lawsuit against the news company and its journalist in the first instance court of general jurisdiction regarding the article written by the journalist and published in the company’s newspaper.
On 27.11.2015, the Court of General Jurisdiction of the Kentron and Nork-Marash Administrative Districts of the City of Yerevan, RA rejected the claim, finding that although the disputed statements incite hatred and are degrading, they do not target the organization as such, but refer to a group of people with certain sexual orientation.
NGNGO appealed the decision of the court of general jurisdiction of the first instance in a higher order, but the appeals to the civil court of RA left the decision unchanged by its decision of 31.03.2016.
The decision of the Court of Appeal was also appealed, but it was left without examination by the decision of the Court of Cassation on June 16, 2016.
On December 29, 2016, a complaint was submitted to the European Court of Human Rights by Ara Ghazaryan, NGNGO attorney and international law specialist.