Lists by years

White and Black Lists

2021

2020

2019

Black List 2021

In 2021, the heads of following state bodies violated the constitutional right of individuals or organizations to receive information by providing baseless or incomplete answers, illegal denials or leaving requests unanswered. The Black list is drawn based on the following criteria.

Vagharshak Harutyunyan, Former Minister of Defence of the Republic of Armenia

On January 7, 2021 "PastInfo" news agency sent a request to the Ministry of Defence for information concerning martyred soldiers. Ministry answered the work is underway to determine the number of killed soldiers and consider it inexpedient to provide information. The refusal is considered baseless, as such statement for refusal is not provided by law.
http://www.givemeinfo.am/hy/case/3192

Arshak Karapetyan, Former First Deputy Minister of Defense

On July 26, 2021 Ophelia Simonyan, the journalist from Media Initiatives Center sent a request to the Ministry of Defence asking how many servicemen have signed a contract with "I have honor" and "I am" programs from the beginning to the day of sending the request. The ministry refused to provide the information, describing it as an official secret. The refusal was considered baseless. Especially, since the Ministry provided a full answer to the inquiry of the same content sent to "Hraparak" newspaper in 2020.
https://hraparak.am/post/8e8cc3f2ee6ba6036e8f800e29e3004d
http://www.givemeinfo.am/hy/case/3309/

Hayk Marutyan, Former Mayor of Yerevan

- On August 12, 2021 FOICA sent request to the Yerevan Municipality to provide information concerning activities of an illegally exploited stone factory and seizure of the land of the community near Yerevan, Silikyan old highway 60/1. The municipality provided baseless answer without actually answering the inquiry (http://www.givemeinfo.am/hy/case/3312/). The same issue continued with duplicated requests (http://www.foi.am/hy/all-cases/item/2136/), (http://www.givemeinfo.am/hy/case/3331/).

On August 30, 2021 FOICA applied to the Human Rights Defender. The Defender states that by not providing a proper, complete response to the Freedom of Information Center NGO President Shushan Doydoyan's requests, the Yerevan Municipality violated her right to receive information stated by the RA Constitution, the RA Law on Freedom of Information, and international documents.

On November 1, 2021 FOICA appealed to the Administrative Court with a request to obligate Yerevan Municipality to provide a comprehensive response to the aforementioned inquiry.

- In 2021, Yerevan Municipality violated the right of the residents of Yerevan Physics District to get information. The Municipality didn't appropriate inform citizens concerning construction of a 12-floor building.

Arsen Torosyan, Former Chief of Office to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia.

A citizen Harutyun Tsatryan asked FOICA to support in getting information. On March 20, 2021 citizen sent a request to the Staff to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia asking how many citizens of the Republic of Armenia went to the Russian Federation and how many RA citizens came to Armenia from Russian within the same period. The Prime Minister's Office forwarded the request to the Civil Aviation Committee, which in a reply stated that they didn't have such information.

On April 9, 2021 (http://www.givemeinfo.am/hy/case/3298/) FOICA sent a request to Staff to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, asking indicate which state body manages that information. The Office of Prime Minister refused to provide the required information, referring to Decision No. 884-N of June 22, 2006. The refusal was considered baseless, as there is no certain answer to the FOICA request. http://www.givemeinfo.am/hy/case/3297/

Narek Zeynalyan, Former Chairman of the Standing Committee on Health Care and Social Affairs of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia (Now Zeynalyan is the Chairman of Standing Committee on Health Care)

On January 12, 2021 a citizen Mushegh Hovsepyan sent a request to the Standing Committee on Health Care and Social Affairs of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia concerning Commission's monitoring of the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the actions taken by the Commission in 2020. The chairman of the commission Narek Zeynalyan provided a baseless answer not related to the questions.
http://www.givemeinfo.am/hy/case/3190/

Alen Simanyan, The Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia

On August 2, 2021 the work of the National Assembly launched with severe restrictions on the movement of media representatives in the Parliament. There weren’t any normative-legal act adopted, which would be a basis for such actions. On the same day, August 2, when the restrictions were already applied, the relevant decision of the NA Speaker was published. All the observations of the professional community remained unanswered.

Gor Gevorgyan, Former Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia

On April 14, 2021 FOICA sent a request to Gor Gevorgyan, MP of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, requesting to provide the list of legislative initiatives he (co)authored during his parliamentary activity, indicating their status as of December 31, 2021. The inquiry remained unanswered.
http://www.givemeinfo.am/hy/case/3288/