On May 10, 2010, the EU General Affairs Council approved the negotiating directives for the future Association Agreements between the EU and Armenia. It is stated that deepening of the relationship between the EU and the countries of the South Caucasus are to progress on the basis of shared values and principles, including democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights.

«Partnership for Open Society» Initiative, representing more than sixty civil society organizations, is pleased to invite you to participate in the discussion on Media Legislation and Self-Regulation Initiatives that will take place on May 14, 14:00-17:40 at the AUA Business Center on Alek Manoogian 9.

According to Article 83.2 of the amended Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, "an independent regulatory body shall be created with the aim of ensuring the freedom, independence and diversity of broadcast media. Half of the members of this body shall be selected by the National Assembly for a period six years, and the other half shall be appointed by the President of the Republic of Armenia for a period of six years.

On March 11 the MCC left the suspension of the funding for roads within the MCA-Armenia Compact in place. The initial suspension in June 2008 was motivated by unresolved problems with the human rights and civil liberties and the last decision not to lift suspension was due to insufficient progress in solution of these problems.

We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned with the fact that even the minimal requirements to restore some democratic practices, outlined in the PACE resolutions 1609 and 1620 and acknowledged by the Armenian government as urgent, have not been implemented, and that instead new restrictions are being enforced by authorities. We are especially concerned about the fundamental right of freedom of assembly enshrined in the Declaration of Human Rights and in the Armenian Constitution.

We, the representatives of the undersigned organizations, have actively participated in all stages of the MCA-Armenia Project including development of proposals for the Compact in the preparatory stage, development of the procedure for the formation of the Stakeholder Committee (SC), organization and conduct of elections to the SC, monitoring of the Compact implementation and raising public awareness of the Project to ensure transparency of the processes at all levels. Alongside with this, we closely followed the role of civil society organizations in the Millennium Challenge Account - Armenia during the last 2 years and decided against nominating candidates for the 3rd SC elections and against collectively supporting any candidate for the following reasons:

We, the undersigned civil society organizations, express our deep concern with the presidential elections on February 19, 2008, the pre-election period, the election campaign and the post-election processes in the country.  The assessment of international observers, even though portrayed in a positive light by the government and the government controlled media, was critical.

The Environmental Public Alliance of 34 non-governmental organizations and “Partnership for Open Society” Initiative of 63 organizations express their concern about the current processes regarding the exploitation of the country’s natural resources and in particular, over the construction of Teghut ore mining and processing enterprise and the operation of Teghut copper-molybdenum mine.

A number of civil society organizations united in the Partnership for Open Society Initiative hereby express our opinion on the matter of Armenia’s recent joining a number of CIS countries in requesting changes in OSCE election observation procedures.

The POS, a coalition of civil society actors, expresses its concern with regard to the draft law “On Lobbyist Activities” that was approved by the government and submitted to the RA National Assembly.  We believe that if the current version of the draft law “On Lobbyist Activities” is approved by RA National Assembly, it will become a serious obstacle for any civil society participation in formulation of the legislative framework as well as for any democratic participatory process in policy analysis and development in the country.