PARTNERSHIP FOR OPEN SOCIETY INITIATIVE
A group of NGOs and individuals have established a partnership of civil society actors - Partnership for Open Society - a coalition of independent and influential NGOs, donors, and international agencies in Armenia and Diaspora.
Donors and local civil society actors have developed and lobbied a number of legislative and policy initiatives in the areas of rule of law, independent media, information, human rights, and education. These initiatives have been closely tied to the legal reform agenda of the country, and particularly to the agenda set by the commitments undertaken by Armenia as a member country of the Council of Europe (CoE). Numerous donor-supported programs have assisted the development of local capacity to sustain quality policy research and engage in public debate and advocacy work.
To make the reform more thorough and systemic and to promote the process of Armenia's coherent integration into the Council of Europe, the stakeholders need to join their efforts in both raising public awareness of the state of the reform and developing alternative policy suggestions.
Partnership for Open Society (also referred to as Partnership or POS) serves to promote and safeguard the democratic reform process in Armenia through:
- Initiating public debate on broad issues related to membership in CoE and compliance of the legal reform with the country's commitments undertaken towards the CoE and other international bodies; free media, human rights with special focus on rights of minorities and vulnerable groups; civic liberties, and economic development;
- Conducting policy analysis and development of suggestions to the Parliament and executive bodies on specific policies and legislation within the domain above;
- Attracting expertise for professional assessment of the needs, legal framework and developed policies within the domain above;
- Educating the general public on the state of the reform and initiating debate on the issues mentioned above through media outreach.
The Partnership is an open coalition to all organizations that are willing to participate in development and advocacy of policies and draft laws. The Partnership seeks and gets funding from its members, donors, and international agencies.
The Partnership works through regional organizations in its effort to reach out to the regions of Armenia.
Partnership's Priority Areas
The Partnership's main activities are grouped into the following priority areas:
- Freedom of Media, Access to Information, Information Communication Technologies
- Legal Reform and Rule of Law
- Human Rights Protection
- Education, Science, Culture
- Economic Development, Public Health, Ecology
- Regional Cooperation |
