Several non-governmental organizations filed a lawsuit against the Government and a miningcompany, disputing the legality of an environmental impact assessment to conduct miningactivities in the south-eastern region of Armenia. The lawsuit also requested that the mining andconcession licenses granted to the mining company be declared void.The Administrative court rejected the administrative action under Article 79 of AdministrativeProcedural Code, which stipulates that “[t]he administrative action is subject to rejection, if it issubmitted by a person, who apparently does not have the right to bring an action.”The Court stated that the right to bring an action before the administrative court is granted tonatural persons or legal entities who consider that their rights have been infringed. However, aperson may not bring an action to court to protect his rights “in the abstract”. Hence the right todispute an administrative act or omission is only recognized for natural persons or legal entitieswhose rights and legal interests have directly been affected.The Court ruled that the plaintiffs did not present any grounds to prove that their rights wereaffected by the license granted to the mining company, and rejected the action.The plaintiff has brought a complaint to the Court of Cassation of Armenia against theresolution.
