LAW

Adopted on 20 November 2001

ON BORDER GUARD TROOPS

This Law shall define the concept, legal ground for and principles of the activities, the rights and obligations of border guard troops of the Republic of Armenia, the legal and social protection of the personnel of border guard troops as well as of citizens and the family members thereof participating in state border protection, financial and logistics support to border guard troops.

CHAPTER 1

GENERAL PROVISIONS

The border guard troops of the Republic of Armenia (hereinafter referred to as “border guard troops”) shall be called for protecting the state border of the Republic of Armenia (hereinafter referred to as “the state border”), ensuring the security and independence of the Republic of Armenia on the state border, implementing border control, state border regime and boundary regime at state border checkpoints.

During martial law, border guard troops may be involved in the defence of the Republic of Armenia.

The associations and military units of border guard troops shall have combat flags of a prescribed form.

The military servicemen and combat equipment of border guard troops shall bear the distinctive emblems approved by the Government of the Republic of Armenia.

The legal ground for the activities of border guard troops shall be the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, the international treaties of the Republic of Armenia, this Law, other laws and legal acts of the Republic of Armenia.

The activities of border guard troops shall be carried out under the principles of legitimacy, humanism, protection of human and citizen’s rights and freedoms, single-handed management, co-operation with single national security system, state bodies as well as legal and natural persons.

Border guard troops shall operate within the composition of state administration body authorised in the field of national security of the Republic of Armenia (hereinafter referred to as “the authorised body”).

Direct management of border guard troops shall be carried out by the commander of border guard troops.

(Article 4 edited by HO-535-N of 11 April 2003, amended by HO-271-N of 23 March 2018)

1. The commander of border guard troops shall be appointed to or dismissed from office by the President of the Republic [of Armenia], upon proposal of the Prime Minister, based on the written motion of the head of the authorised body.

2. The proposal of the Prime Minister shall be submitted in writing and shall include the name, surname, patronymic of the person nominated for appointment, information on his or her career and his or her rank.

3. The motion of the head of the authorised body shall be attached to the proposal of the Prime Minister on appointing a commander of border guard troops and shall include information prescribed by part 2 of this Article as well as the relevant draft decree of the President of the Republic [of Armenia] on appointing to or dismissing from office.

4. The President of the Republic [of Armenia] shall, within a period of three days following the receipt of the proposal of the Prime Minister, sign the draft decree attached to the proposal or return it to the Prime Minister with objections.

5. Where the Prime Minister fails to accept the objection of the President of the Republic [of Armenia] within a period of five days, the President of the Republic [of Armenia] shall, within a period of three days following the expiry of the period of five days, sign the decree or apply to the Constitutional Court.

6. Where the Constitutional Court adopts a decision on recognising the proposal submitted to the President of the Republic [of Armenia] by the Prime Minister as complying with the Constitution, the President of the Republic [of Armenia] shall, within a period of three days, sign the relevant decree.

7. Where the Constitutional Court adopts a decision on recognising the proposal submitted to the President of the Republic [of Armenia] by the Prime Minister as contradicting the Constitution, the Prime Minister shall, within a period of five days, submit a new proposal as prescribed by part 2 of this Article.

8. Where the President of the Republic [of Armenia] fails to meet the requirements prescribed by parts 4-6 of this Article, the respective person shall, pursuant to Article 139 of the Constitution, be deemed as appointed to or dismissed from office by virtue of law, starting from the day following the expiry of the period of three days prescribed by parts 4-6 of this Article, whereon the Prime Minister shall deliver a written statement.

The written statement shall be signed by the Prime Minister and promulgated on the official website of the Government.

(Article 4.1 supplemented by HO-271-N of 23 March 2018)

The central management body of border guard troops is the General Department for State Border Protection, which comprises subordinate associations and military units, border control military units and subdivisions, military training units and assurance subdivisions.

The number of border guard troops shall be approved by the Government of the Republic of Armenia, upon submission of the authorised body.

Distribution (redistribution) of associations and military units of border guard troops shall be carried out by the head of the authorised body, upon submission of the commander of border guard troops.

CHAPTER 2

RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF BORDER GUARD TROOPS

In the border zone (layer) and at state border checkpoints, border guard troops shall be entitled to:

(a) distribute border guard squads and implement operational intelligence measures in any part of the locality;

(b) require, as prescribed by law of the Republic of Armenia, from the owners of land parcels to grant the right to limited use of these land parcels for the implementation of their tasks (roads for the movement of border guard squads and transportation means, as well as creation and provision of corridors on fences and other roadblocks);

(c) escort passenger and cargo trains, other transportation means through border guard squads;

(d) verify, as prescribed by law, the documents of persons and transportation means, exercise inspection of transportation means and the cargo being transported thereby. The damage caused to natural and legal persons by border guard troops during inspection shall be compensated at the expense of the State Budget, and the person having caused the damage shall be subjected to liability, as prescribed by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia.

(e) build buildings, premises, engineering and technical structures, educational facilities, facilities of logistics base, install communication lines, distribute and use technical equipment and ammunition in the land parcels granted thereto as prescribed by law;

(f) carry out, under the procedure and within time limit prescribed by law, the administrative arrest of the citizens of the Republic of Armenia, citizens of foreign States and stateless persons having violated the state border regime, the boundary regime and state border checkpoint regime;

(g) inspect and, where necessary, take the items and documents of the arrested persons. A protocol shall be drawn up with regard to each case of administrative arrest and that of taking the items of arrested persons;

(h) hold persons imposed an administrative arrest or persons arrested on the suspicion of having committed a crime, other persons subject to investigation by competent bodies, in the specially equipped premises of border guard troops. These persons may, where necessary, be held in isolation wards of temporary confinement of national security bodies and internal affairs bodies.

(i) invite, as prescribed by law, persons to the subdivisions of border guard troops and receive explanations from them for the purpose of clarifying the circumstances of unlawful crossing of the state border, violation of the state border regime, the boundary regime or the state border checkpoint regime, that are known to them;

(j) make relevant notes in the documents enabling to cross the state border and, where necessary, take these documents temporarily, as well as take false documents, preclude persons lacking respective documents enabling the entry into the territory of the Republic of Armenia or exit from the territory of the Republic of Armenia from passing across the state border until proper formulation of the documents enabling them to cross the state border or until clarification of the circumstances of loss of the documents thereby;

(k) determine, jointly with interested state bodies and organisations, the places and duration of stops (parking) of transportation means carrying out international carriages of passengers and cargo at state border checkpoints;

(l) seize, as prescribed by law, the weapons, ammunition, narcotic drugs, currency, precious items and goods being illegally carried across the state border and having been detected during border control;

(m) temporarily restrict or prohibit, while carrying out border search (operation) and operational intelligence activities and having the aim of protecting the health and life of people, the movement of persons and transportation means, as well as prohibit the entry of citizens into certain areas of the locality, force them to stay there or leave these areas, by immediately informing the commander of border guard troops thereon;

(n) temporarily restrict the organisation of activities in case of a real danger posed to the interests of the Republic of Armenia on the state border, except for the activities performed in compliance with international treaties of the Republic of Armenia, defensive activities and measures related with the prevention of consequences of natural disasters and particularly dangerous and infectious diseases, by informing the territorial administration bodies, local self-government bodies and interested organisations thereon;

(o) enter, as prescribed by law, the apartments, premises, territories, land parcels of citizens, including through elimination of barriers, while prosecuting those violating state border and the state border regime. Where the aforementioned actions have been carried out against the will of citizens or officials, the relevant commander of border guard troops shall notify the relevant prosecutor thereon within 24 hours.

(p) freely use communication means for service-related purposes, and while resisting the invasions into the territory of the Republic of Armenia, implementing search measures and transporting persons suspected of crime or other offences, use the transportation means of organisations (irrespective of legal and organisational form) and, where necessary — also the transportation means of citizens, by compensating the material expenses as prescribed by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia;

(q) receive information, while performing their official duties, from state and local self-government bodies, non-governmental associations and other organisations as prescribed by law, except for the cases of a special established procedure for the receipt of information;

(r) carry out registration of persons, record-registration of factual data and maintain statistics for the purpose of exercising oversight over the observance of state border regime, boundary regime and state border checkpoint regime, as well as use, as prescribed by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia, information systems for these purposes;

(s) submit recommendations to state bodies and organisations on the elimination of causes and conditions contributing to the offences related, by virtue of law, to the proceedings of border guard troops;

(t) encourage citizens having stood out in state border protection;

(u) use weapons, combat equipment, special means and guard dogs, under the procedure provided for by this Law;

(v) carry out intelligence, anti-intelligence and operational intelligence activities within the scope of their competence and for the purpose of ensuring state border protection;

(w) carry out oversight over the observance among the population of the rules of state border regime, boundary regime and state border checkpoint regime;

(x) conduct investigation under the cases related to their proceedings by law;

(y) prevent offences, the fight against which falls under the competence of border guard troops;

(z) participate in the activities of border representatives of the Republic of Armenia, organise, where necessary, border search (operation);

(aa) inspect a plane or aircraft, where it has failed to respond to the signals of the inquiry, has been outside the air corridors, has violated the procedure for entry into the air territory of the Republic of Armenia, as well as has made landings at non-international airports upon entry into the air territory of the Republic of Armenia. Inspection of a plane or other aircrafts shall include the check of documents of the plane or other aircrafts, those of the members of the personnel, passengers and cargo;

(bb) either permit to continue the flight within the air territory of the Republic of Armenia, upon inspection of the plane or other aircrafts, in observance of the prescribed rules, or recommend to leave the territory of the Republic of Armenia, or detain the plane or other aircrafts in compliance with the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On the state border”;

(cc) prohibit the personnel and passengers of the plane or other aircrafts of a foreign State to exit from the plane or other aircrafts having committed violations of flight, airport, customs, sanitary rules in the territory of the Republic of Armenia;

(dd) remove persons subject to criminal liability from the plane or other aircrafts and arrest them, deliver them to investigation or preliminary investigation bodies, unless otherwise provided for by international treaties of the Republic of Armenia.

Border guard troops may exercise the rights granted thereto by this Article also outside the border zone while prosecuting border violators jointly with relevant bodies in the territory of the Republic of Armenia.

While protecting the state border of the Republic of Armenia, border guard troops shall be obliged to:

(a) protect the state border and preclude the unlawful change thereof;

(b) resist armed invasions into the territory of the Republic of Armenia, disrupt armed and other provocations arising on the state border, protect the population and all forms of ownership from the mentioned criminal encroachments;

(c) exercise oversight over the observance of the requirements of state border regime, boundary regime and state border checkpoint regime;

(d) ensure the fulfilment of obligations relating to the state border regime that are provided for by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia and international treaties of the Republic of Armenia;

(e) prevent the actions of persons violating state border regime, boundary regime and state border checkpoint regime of the Republic of Armenia;

(f) carry out operational intelligence activities, fight against the intelligence activities and unlawful activities of special services and organisations as well as criminal groups and individual persons of foreign States, on the state border;

(g) participate in the activities for delimitation, demarcation and re-demarcation of the state border;

(h) assist the activities of state authorised bodies of the Republic of Armenia in the border zone (layer), in the course of implementation of measures complying with their tasks;

(i) organise and carry out border representation activities with relevant bodies of bordering States of the Republic of Armenia.

Border guards shall, as prescribed by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia, be subjected to liability for failure to fulfil or improper fulfilment of their obligations.

The damage caused to organisations and citizens as a result of unlawful actions or inactions of border guards shall be subject to compensation in accordance with civil legislation of the Republic of Armenia.

The unlawful actions of border guards may be appealed against by way of superiority or through judicial procedure.

CHAPTER 3

APPLICATION OF WEAPONS, COMBAT EQUIPMENT AND SPECIAL MEANS BY BORDER GUARD TROOPS

While protecting the state border, border guard troops shall be entitled to apply weapons and combat equipment:

(a) in case of resisting an armed attack or preventing the armed resistance of violators of the state border;

(b) in case of resisting an unarmed attack and preventing the resistance of unarmed persons, in the event of an overt danger posed to the life of border guards or citizens, where other measures for preventing this danger are ruled out;

(c) in case violators of state border make an attempt to hide in the territory of the bordering State or penetrate into the depths of the territory of the Republic of Armenia, where other measures for preventing their actions have been exhausted;

(d) during the escape of persons arrested for having violated the state border, where it is impossible to hinder the escape by other means;

(e) in case of defending the population, all forms of ownership from armed attack, armed and other provocations, where the other forms of defence are useless.

In the cases provided for by points (b)-(e) of this Article, weapons and combat equipment shall be applied where the violators fail to follow the orders of the border guard after the call “Stand” and a warning shot fired in the air.

Weapons and combat equipment shall be applied without warning in case of an unexpected armed attack on military servicemen and citizens, during the attack with combat equipment, air and other transportation means, during armed resistance as well as for the purpose of releasing hostages.

The military servicemen of border guard troops shall be entitled to apply weapons in case of forced neutralisation of animals posing danger to the life and health of military servicemen and citizens, as well as in case of sounding the alarm or calling for help.

Border guard troops shall be prohibited from applying weapons:

(a) against persons violating the state border within the sight of border guards, where these violations are obviously accidental or are related with the performance of economic activities near the state border, as well as in case of swimming with motor boats, canoes or without them;

(b) in case of an attempt of escaping by persons having violated the boundary regime and state border checkpoint regime, where there is no real threat of violating the state border;

(c) against transportation means in the border zone which ride on automobile roads adjacent to the state border and do not follow the order of border guard troops to stop, where there is no real threat of violating the state border;

(d) against women, persons with obvious signs of disability and minors, except for the cases of showing armed resistance or group attack posing danger to the life of people.

While protecting the state border, border guard troops shall apply special means (handcuffs or other appliances for tying hands, rubber clubs, tear-producing substances, noise flash diversionary devices, devices making the transportation means stop), physical force (including arm wrestling tricks) and guard dogs in case of:

(a) resisting an attack on military servicemen of border guard troops and citizens performing their official duties or public duty under state border protection, as well as in case of releasing hostages;

(b) preventing group violations of the state border or mass disturbances;

(c) resisting an attack on the buildings, premises and transportation means of border guard troops;

(d) arresting state border violators, transferring them to subdivisions of border guard troops, escorting arrested persons by guard groups, where they do not obey or show resistance to military servicemen of border guard troops.

The use of special means, except for resisting an unexpected attack and releasing hostages, must follow a warning about the intention of using these means, and, depending on the situation, sufficient time must be provided to put an end to offences.

The type of special means being used shall be determined as of the existing situation, the nature of the offence and the personality of the offender. While using special means, it is necessary to seek to reduce to a minimum the damage caused to the health of citizens.

Use of special means against women with noticeable signs of pregnancy, persons with obvious signs of disability and minors shall be prohibited, except for the cases of armed resistance shown by the mentioned persons and actions posing danger to the life and health of people.

CHAPTER 4

JOINING SERVICE AT BORDER GUARD TROOPS

The personnel of border guard troops shall comprise military servicemen and civilians.

The military servicemen of border guard troops shall have a uniform and military ranks of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, as well as distinctive emblems of border guard troops.

Military service and the activities of civilians within border guard troops shall be regulated by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia.

Recruitment of border guard troops with military servicemen undergoing fixed-term military service shall be carried out in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On conscription”.

The commander of border guard troops shall bear responsibility for the state and quality of recruitment of border guard troops, the distribution of military servicemen within military units and subdivisions as well as the timely and regulated demobilisation of military servicemen undergoing fixed-term military service whose term of military service has expired.

Professional training, retraining and qualification raising of staff members of border guard troops shall be carried out in the Republic of Armenia as prescribed by the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On education”, as well as in foreign States.

CHAPTER 5

LEGAL AND SOCIAL PROTECTION OF MILITARY SERVICEMEN OF BORDER GUARD TROOPS AND CITIZENS PARTICIPATING IN STATE BORDER PROTECTION

While deciding on issues of state border protection, the military servicemen of border guard troops shall act as the representatives of the authorities and shall fall under state protection.

The lawful orders thereof shall be binding for all citizens and officials. No one shall be entitled to interfere with the activities thereof, except for the persons authorised by law.

Hindering the performance by military servicemen of border guard troops of obligations of state border protection, encroachments against the life, health, honour and dignity of military servicemen of border guard troops and their family members during the performance of these obligations shall entail liability prescribed by law.

Unlawful actions against citizens and their family members aimed at assisting border guard troops shall entail liability prescribed by law.

Issues pertaining to social protection of military servicemen of border guard troops and citizens participating in state border protection shall be regulated by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia.

Additional guarantees and compensations may, by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia, be established for the military servicemen of border guard troops and citizens participating in state border protection.

CHAPTER 6

FINANCIAL AND LOGISTICS SUPPORT TO BORDER GUARD TROOPS

Financial support to border guard troops shall be ensured from the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia.

Border guard troops shall, as prescribed by the Government of the Republic of Armenia, be provided with military items, materials and equipment required for state border protection. The Government of the Republic of Armenia shall, on the basis of applications submitted by the authorised body, ensure military and logistics supply to border guard troops in a centralised manner.

CHAPTER 7

FINAL PROVISION

This Law shall enter into force from the moment of its official promulgation.