An event dedicated to the International Anti-Corruption Day is currently being held in the framework of the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project.

President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, Coordinator of Secretariat of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition Karen Zadoyan delivered welcoming speech at the event.

The RA Anti-Corruption Strategy 2019-2022 was discussed during the first part of the event.

“As you know, the concept of the previous strategy was adopted under confidential conditions and the public was not aware of it. We made a statement that a non-transparent concept was adopted and after that we initiated a critical participation process and cooperation with the government. During this period a number of institutional reforms have been implemented jointly. It was very important for us that this time the government initiated a participatory discussion of the draft strategy,” Karen Zadoyan said.

He noted that the draft had not even been posted in e-draft.am and that this is the first time that it is being debated with the interested civil society organizations. “We have requested the Ministry of Justice and the Prime Minister to postpone the final adoption and approval of this strategy for a few months in order to allow professional circles to fully participate in the final drafting of the Strategy and Action Plan. If the government decides to postpone the adoption of the strategy, we plan to organize a large-scale workshop with the government in February with the participation of international experts, which will enable to make the RA New Anti-Corruption Strategy a more legitimate and professional document. “

Karen Zadoyan called on all those present and interested parties to study the document thoroughly in order to get a final version of a document that will really bring changes to the lives of Armenian citizens.

“We have had many documents that we have written about, but they have not changed the lives of people. We hope this strategy will be a breakthrough document that will bring changes. I welcome the Government’s approach that the document is based on 3 basic pillars of anti-corruption fight: anti-corruption education, prevention of corruption and inevitability of punishment,” Karen Zadoyan said.