The Armenian Lawyers’ Association continues to provide free advice to citizens. From 23 March to 30 April, ALA lawyers answered to 793 questions.

According to Vache Baghdasaryan, coordinator of the Syunik regional branch of the ALA, he has already answered 65 questions. “Most of the questions concern the government’s anti-crisis programs to neutralize the economic consequences of the Coronavirus, state benefits and the social sphere, the fulfillment of emergency loan obligations, as well as labor law relations,” he told Iravaban.net.

According to the lawyer, the main complaints of the citizens are related to the anti-crisis programs approved by the Government, as a result of which many citizens were in a difficult social situation due to the state of emergency, but are not beneficiaries of any anti-crisis program. “There were also complaints about the peculiarities of employer-employee legal relations, as well as the peculiarities of providing credit leave by banks and credit organizations, in particular, the liquidation process of “VARKS.AM” UCO CJSC and its legal consequences and the fulfillment of the contractual obligations by borrowers, Vache Baghdasaryan said.

In his opinion, the state should take clear steps, which should be aimed at raising the level of legal awareness of the citizens, both due to the pandemic of the virus as well as other circumstances. “It is not enough to provide free consultations to the citizens to achieve that goal. The state must define a clear policy and introduce clear mechanisms that will contribute to raising the level of legal awareness of citizens,” the ALA Lawyer said.

Notably, considering the fact that on 16 March, the RA Government declared a state of emergency on the whole territory of the Republic of Armenia due to the spread of a new type of coronavirus, and a number of restrictions related to the labor rights, on 23 March ALA issued a statement on providing free legal advice and counselling to the citizens.