On 26 February 2019, the first session of the working group created to edit the draft laws on making changes and additions in the RA Law on Foundations and RA Law on Non-Governmental Organisations took place in the State Revenue Committee (SRC).
The working group has been created based on the recommendation presented by the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project to the SRC on creating a CSO-SRC working group to discuss issues related to the transparency and accountability of NGOs and Foundations, as well as to find the legal solutions to a number of issues existing in the draft laws.
On 14 February 2019, based on the SRC Chairman’s order N 93-Ա, the above-mentioned working group was created and its individual composition was approved. Syuzanna Soghomonyan, a lawyer and the CSO-Government Dialogue Coordinator of the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project, and lawyer-expert Artyom Mesropyan were also included in the working group.
As for the SRC commitment to adapt SRC Chairman’s Order N 59-Ն of 13 February 2018 to the requirements of the RA Law on Non-Governmental Organisations, it should be noted that on 15 February 2019, the SRC Chairman signed the Order N 102-Ն “On Approving the Exemplary NGO Activity Report Form, Order of Its Completion, Order of Report Publication and the Order of Submission to the State Revenue Committee Adjacent to the Government of the Republic of Armenia and Revocation of the RA SRC Chairman’s N 59-Ն decision of 13 February 2018.” This order had foreseen an additional illegal obligation on the NGOs that use public funds to submit reports also on the use of non-public funds. and the new order full corresponds to the above-mentioned law (the old one was unlawful as it contradicted the law). The new order fully corresponds to the RA Law on Non-Governmental Organisations.
The working group comprises 16 members, representatives of civil society organisations (9 of them), the State Revenue Committee, Central Bank and the Ministry of Justice. 6 of the 9 CSO representatives are from the group of 103 CSOs that signed the statement-standpoint on the draft laws, prepared by the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project and submitted to the State Revenue Committee.
