The Rights of Persons with Disabilities are Still Violated

2011-08-24

On August 17, Unison NGO held a press conference in Urbat Club. Issues concerning facts of violation of disabled persons' rights that still occur in Armenia, became the topic of the meeting with journalists.
Armen Alaverdyan, Unison NGO Executive director, and Gayane Khachatryan, member of the RA Chamber of Advocates, spoke at the briefing. In particular, they presented problems, which have emerged regarding definition of disability group for those who have functional impairments, and their further medical-social examination.
There are a number of cases when person's real disability group is not assessed correctly because of various reasons. In this connection, a case of Gagik Navasardyan, resident of Sevan city, was mentioned. On August 2007, Gagik collided with a motorboat in Lake Sevan, as a result of which his leg was amputated above knee. Medico-Social Expert Commission #1 of Gegharkunik province assigned the 2nd group of disability for him; however, when Gagik have had got a prosthesis, the group was changed from 2nd to 3rd.
Navasardyan appealed against this decision to RA Medico-Social Expert Agency, but the decision remained unchanged. Then Gagik appealed to court.
At present, his case is under legal procedure in the RA Court of Appeal.
We are hopeful that the court, finally, will give fair judgment, and the case will not achieve the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Unison implements the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities project with the assistance of the Open Society Foundations - Armenia.