The Armenian Lawyers’ Association (ALA) issued a statement on 23 March stating that taking into account the state of emergency in the Republic of Armenia due to the coronavirus, which was declared from 16 to 30 March, and a number of restrictions on labor issues, will provide free legal advice on labor relations to the citizens who will present their issues to the organization.

In the period from 23 March to 10 April, ALA lawyers answered to 521 questions from citizens.

In the interview with Iravaban.net, Artyom Mesropyan, Lawyer/Coordinator of the CSOs Development Programs at the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, said that in general the citizens’ questions were related to the Government’s support measures directed to neutralization of the coronavirus consequences.

“We were receiving questions from the citizens asking whether they are beneficiaries of this or that social measure or not. How they can apply for support to that measure. How it is decided that just the mentioned target groups shall receive support for that social support measure and other groups shall not. Why social assistance measures are not clearly defined which raises a number of questions for citizens.”

As for providing free consultations, the lawyer noted․ “ALA was providing free consultations before 23 March as well. People directed their questions via Facebook page and e-mail. This was another option to support our citizens during the quarantine days, which they really needed, which is evidenced by the statistics of how many questions we received in a few days. There could be no other option but to provide free counseling to socially disadvantaged people.”