U.S. State Dept. Published Critical Report on Human Rights in Armenia
The U.S. State Department issued on March 20, 2023 its annual Country Reports on Human Rights for the year 2022. The report covered 198 countries and territories, including Armenia.
The Executive Summary of the report described the Parliamentary elections of 2021: “the elections were generally well managed, and contestants were able to campaign freely. The elections, however, were also characterized by intense polarization and marred by increasingly inflammatory rhetoric. The observation mission noted that ‘high levels of harsh, intolerant, inflammatory and discriminatory rhetoric in the period leading up to election day tainted the debate.’ Other shortcomings included incidents of pressure to attend campaign events, allegations of vote buying, blurring of the line between the ruling party and state, alleged misuse of administrative resources, inadequate campaign finance provisions, and the narrow standing allowed for submitting electoral complaints.”
