On 27 April, presentation, discussion and summarisation of the issues identified in the sectors of justice, human rights and public finance management in the framework of the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project and presentation of the activities to solve the identified issues was held.
35 representatives of relevant government agencies and civil society organisations, as well as experts in the area of justice, human rights and public finance management attend the event.
“In this crucial period for the citizens of the Republic of Armenia, I believe it necessary to once again highlight the importance of continuing realisation of the commitment to constructive dialogue that we undertook within the framework of the EU-funded ” Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project to support reforms in 9 areas of the public life of our country, ” Karen Zadoyan noted and added that three topics of today’s agenda are related to three of those target areas of the project.”
Deputy Minister of Justice Vigen Kocharyan positively assessed the outcomes of public discussions over the above mentioned issues and noted that the overwhelming majority of proposals submitted by civil society organisations have been widely discussed and adopted by the Ministry.
In his speech, he highlighted the importance of constructive dialogue as well. “It is a necessary precondition for success and solving various problems.”
President of the Chamber of Advocates Ara Zohrabyan noted that the issues in the human rights, justice and other spheres are important and it is also important to identify them. “At present the transparent and public discussions of the public issues is crucial and the Chamber of Advocates continues to provide expert opinions on legislative initiatives,” Ara Zohrabyan said.
The participants discussed the following topics:
The issues identified in the sector of human rights:
- Improving Public Policies in combating discrimination through monitoring and policy development (Adoption and implementation of the RA Law on Equality).
- Monitoring of community-based services for PWDs, including development of a monitoring tool for CSOs.
- Adoption of internal guidelines on anti-discrimination by 3 different public institutions, etc.
The issues identified in the sector of justice:
- Increasing the access to justice of vulnerable groups.
- Improved enforcement of court decisions.
The issues identified in the public finance management sector:
- Effective introduction of child- and gender-sensitive budgeting at national and local level, as well as within CSOs and CSO coalitions
- CSO participation in discussions on the Simplified State Budget
The “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project is implemented with the financial support of the European Union by a Consortium of civil society organisations, which are the Armenian Lawyers’ Association (lead organisation), Agora Central Europe (NGO based in the Czech Republic), the Armenian Centre for Democratic Education-CIVITAS, the International Centre for Human Development, the SME Cooperation Association and the Union of Communities of Armenia.
The project aims to enhance the influence of civil society organisations (CSOs) and CSO coalitions/networks on public policies in Armenia. This will allow organisations that are already working in sectoral coalitions to access additional resources, new groups of civil society experts to come together and encourage place their causes on the local and national policy agenda, to identify common concerns and priorities and approach government bodies with constructive and strategic policy engagement initiatives.
The project will provide sub-grants to CSOs and CSO coalitions for developing public policies and bringing significant changes in the 9 target sectors selected within the project, including those of 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.
