Termination of activities and other legal consequences may be applied if the NGOs fail to meet the obligations that are provided under the new NGO Law. Mr. Karen Zadoyan, President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, the EU funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project Manager introduced this and other changes in the law at the training organized in Goris in the scope of the project.
Notably, on 16 December, 2016 the national Assembly adopted the New NGO law, which came into force on 4 February 2017.
What documents are needed and what other requirements exist if you want to register a new NGO or need to make changes in the NGO name, location or other information? What important conditions for the development of the charter exists and what problems you may face if the statute does not comply with the provisions of the law and other such nuances were presented to the attention of NGO representatives.
For example, the statute shall clearly define the cases when the NGO member may be dismissed. There were cases in practice, where the expelled member of the NGO applied to the court and restored membership because of the absence of grounds for dismissal in the statute..
Special regulations are established in the case of minor members.
It is also important that the complaint of the NGO members could be the basis for starting inspections of the NGO by the authorized body. Notably, in the past the competent authority was the Justice Ministry; currently it is the State Revenue Committee.
There are some problematic provisions, related to the documents submitted to SRC regarding taxation in case of providing services and other issues. It is expected to form a joint the working group with SRC and discuss these issues.
Notably, the training is conducted in the scope of the Europe Days. The “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project is implemented with the financial support of the European Union by the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO in cooperation with its partners; 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.
At today’s event Karen Zadoyan presented to the NGO representatives the objective and implemented activities of the project. Specifically, the program aims to strengthen the capacities of NGOs in 9 sectors. For this purpose the project has carried out research among 350 NGOs, raised and identified the existing problems.
It is due to mention that today’s event in Goris City was organized on the initiative of the Association of Social Enterprises of Armenia in the scope of “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project.
