Today at 15:00 pm Partnership for Open Society organized a discussion on the “Amendments to RA Law on Non-governmental Organizations” at AUA Business Center (Yerevan, Alek Manougyan 9). Civil society representatives and experts were invited to discuss the impact of proposed amendments on the NGO community. The Minister of Justice Mr. Gevorg Danielyan and Mr. Mkhitar Mnatsakanyan – the Chairman of RA NA Permanent Committee on Human Rights Protection and Public Issues had also been invited to be main speakers of the event. Even though representatives of respective government bodies had been invited a week ago, we have to mention with regret that that none of the government officials were present at the discussion, while the representatives of civil society took an active part in it.

The opening speech was delivered by Dr. Lucig Danielian, Provost and Vice president of AUA, who was very disappointed to see the unwillingness of the government to cooperate with civil society on the above mentioned issue. She said there was lack of confidence among NGOs in the approach of the government regarding the guarantees required for a functioning open society. She as well mentioned that open discussions, debates and arguments are essential requirements for any democracy, and NGOs are active participants in policy making.

One of the main speakers, Mr. Arsen Stepanyan, an expert of NGO initiative group, said he was sorry that none of the invited state officials was present at the event. He mentioned that the amendments to the law had not undergone wide public discussions and were full of negative implications for NGO community; therefore it must be called back. To add, most of the NGO community is not even aware that the law is undergoing an amendment process.

Mr. Tachat ter-Stepanyan, an expert of laws on non-commercial organizations, mentioned that the new law imposes additional labor and financial burden on NGOs. He said that particularly there was a problem with elimination of the word “union” and only leaving the word “Ltd”. These words assume different types of organizational activity and limit people’s legislative rights to create unions. There are also many ambiguous and vague words and expressions which require clarifications. Mr. Arsen Stepanyan mentioned that “devils are in details” and probably it was intentional to formulate the words the way they were, to which Mr. Tachat ter-Stepanyan mentioned that it was more likely there had been an intention to divert the attention of NGOs from another – more important issue.

Representatives of various NGOs uttered their points of view on the amendments, and there was one unanimous idea that the law has to be called back and all NGOs must be properly informed about any amendments affecting the law that governs their activities. They re-asserted that they were going to work toward hindering the adoption of the amendments.