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Article

3 Jul 2014

Author:
Sofya Manukyan

Armenian-Russian gas deal from human rights perspective

At the end of 2013, an agreement was signed between Armenia and Russia…This was a gas agreement between the two states on the basis of which Russian Gazprom company, which prior to this agreement owned 80 percent of the Armenian-Russian joint venture ArmRusgazprom, now purchased the remaining 20 percent…[U]ntil 31st of December of 2043, the Armenian side guarantees through the contract that no future laws, decisions or any normative legal act of the RA can change or declare void or affect in any other way the rights and benefits of Gazprom, ArmRusgazard or their successors…This…limits the state’s ability to apply new social, environmental, labour or other legislation that can in some way affect the contract. The investor… may consider itself exempt from applying new laws which refer to working conditions, changes in minimum wages, usage of technologies aimed at protecting the environment from adverse impacts, etc. This means that the international obligations that the state has agreed to fulfil in the field of primarily human rights are undermined by this investment agreement…