On June 15, a seminar on justice, anti-corruption, human rights, public finance, education and social issues was held in the Gyumri office of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association for a group of CSOs participants of Gyumri CSOs’ Incubator, within the framework of the EU-funded “Constructive Dialogue Commitment” on the topic.
Mr. Karen Zadoyan, the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project Manager, presented the 3 pillars of anti-corruption fight: anti-corruption education, prevention and accountability. The successful international experience, the steps taken in Armenia, the anti-corruption measures included in the new government’s program were presented as well.
Karen Zadoyan also noted that at present CSOs have submitted to the government the mechanisms of effective fight against corruption and recommendations on how to return the return of the wealth gained as a result of illicit enrichment.
Mr. Khachik Gevorgyan, Education and Related Sectors Coordinator of the project, delivered a lecture and presented their experience in the sphere of science. He spoke about the endowments as well.
Further, Karen Zadoyan, Khachik Gevorgyan, Artak Saribekyan, Deputy Project Manager/Grants Coordinator of the project and Tigran Danielyan, Expert lawyer of the project, provided individual consultations on justice, human rights, public finance management, education and social spheres as well as other sectors of the Project to the representatives of CSOs participants of Gyumri CSOs’ Incubator.
The “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” action is implemented with the financial support of the European Union by a Consortium of civil society organizations, which are “Armenian Lawyers’ Association”, Agora Central Europe o.p.s (an NGO from the Czech Republic), Armenian Center for Democratic Education-CIVITAS, “International Center for Human Development” Public Organization, SME Cooperation Association and Union of Communities of Armenia.
The overall objective of the project is to enhance the influence of CSOs on the public policy process, and the specific objectives are to strengthen the ability of CSOs to build coalitions and focus on constructive and strategic policy engagement with local and central government partners. This will enable organizations (which already work in targeted coalitions) to acquire new resources, to join and encourage the civil society experts to engage in and encourage their participation in the formation of the local and national policies agenda; to identify common issues and priorities; and to address the government with constructive and strategic policy initiatives.
The project has a sub-granting component, under which grants will be provided to CSOs and CSOs Coalitions, which will be directed to the development of public policies and will have tangible results in 9 target areas, including justice, education and business.
The Armenian Lawyers’ Association (ALA) was established in 1995 with a mission to promote to the establishment of the rule of law, democracy and formation of the civil society in Armenia, where the people are aware of their rights and where their rights are protected. Before February 2016, ALA used to be called Armenian Young Lawyers Association.
