YEREVAN, JULY 5, NOYAN TAPAN - ARMENIANS TODAY. Robert Avagian, a member of the Justice Council and a senior scientific worker of the Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law of the RA National Academy of Sciences, made a statement during the launching of his book titled "Human rights, criminal-legal guarantees" held on July 4, saying that the 2005 and 2006 years have been most productive "in terms of the struggle carried out against murders." According to Robert Avagian, 55 murder and 24 attempted murder cases were recorded in 2005. In 2006 these indices are, respectively, 75 and 21. "Certainly, if we compare the year of 2005 with that of 2006, we will see that there is an increase in the number of murders. However, a criminologist or a laywer should consider these indices in a combination," the author of the book said. According to him, the smallest number of murder and attempted murder cases was recorded in 2005 and 2006 since the Republic of Armenia became independent. Astghik Gevorgian, the Chairwoman of the Journalists' Union of Armenia, mentioned that the "Human rights, criminal-legal guarantees" book can "arm" a reader with sufficient necessary knowledge about the science of law. "At present, we have an opportunity to raise the problem of the protection of our rights to the European Court or Constitutional Court, but we are not armed with corresponding legal knowledge as yet and this fact is an obstacle in our way. And it is widely-known that bribery mainly results from the lack of knowledge of laws," the Chairwoman of the Journalists' Union of Armenia said.

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