12 Civil society representatives today learned about the recent amendments made to the new law “On Non-Governmental Organizations”.

The training was organized within the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project. It was presented by Mr. Marat Atovmyan, Coordinator of the Incubators of the project conducted the training,

Mr. Marat Atovmyan, Mentors’ Group Coordinator/Justice and related Sectors Mentor of the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project presented the provisions regulating the activities of volunteers in Armenia as well as the legal regulations that aimed at the introduction of the volunteer institute that are provided by the new draft law.

Marat Atovmyan presented the recent amendments to the Law on Non-Governmental Organizations. He also presented that in accordance with the latest legislative amendment, after 4 February, 5000 AMD state duty should be paid to register the Charter at the State Register.

Notably, most of the participants were women.

Ms Zoya Julhakyan, Chairman of “Caravan 88” Charitable NGO, noted that the organization with long experience has faced many challenges during this time. “I tried to do this independently, but I failed because I know that for already a long time, changes were being made, and the charter with the amendments made was always returned, and we made more and more amendments,” she said. She also mentioned that there was a problem with the volunteers institute when the work of the volunteers was considered by the Tax Inspectorate as a hidden workforce and a fine was imposed. Zoya Julhakyan welcomed the introduction of the volunteers institute in the NGO legislation, which will help to avoid such problems.

“There are no problems in the Fund, we are trying to solve everything and adapt to the amendments to the law,” Ms Ani Arakelyan, representative of the “International Accountancy Training Center” Educational Fund said.

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.