As we reported earlier, The Outreach Training Phase of the Anti-Corruption School for Young Leaders, the 1st anti-corruption professional educational initiative operating in the Republic of Armenia started on 13 August.
Mr. Karen Zadoyan, President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, spoke about the anti-corruption education. He noted that until now there is no single definition of corruption, because it is a universal phenomenon. At different times, different bodies have given their definition of the concept of corruption, based on international and own experience.
“If these definitions are combined, the following idea can be formulated: “corruption is the abuse of official powers, expressed by action or inaction, for personal or other mercenary purposes,” Karen Zadoyan said.
The ALA President also spoke about the so-called “tops” and “bottoms”, as well as systemic corruption. “Corruption becomes systemic when there is no real political will to fight corruption, and all state bodies are interconnected by corrupt transactions.”
Further, the speaker referred to the stages of the anti-corruption struggle. These include: the formation in society of intolerance to corruption in the fight against corruption, the establishment of international anti-corruption legal standards and the adoption of documents, the implementation of international standards by the state.
Referring to the pillars of the anti-corruption fight, Karen Zadoyan once again reminded: The anti-corruption fight is successful if there are 3 strong pillars. They are: anti-corruption education, prevention of corruption and inevitability of punishment.
He also introduced to the attention of the students the 2023-2026 Action Plan arising from the National Anti-Corruption Strategy, which also includes anti-corruption education and public awareness as a goal. The Armenian Lawyers’ Association and its partners proposed to introduce in the strategy for the first time an educational program on the topics of ethics and integrity for 5-6-year-old children in pre-school educational institutions. However, according to the final draft, it is planned to develop and implement an educational program on ethics, integrity and anti-corruption topics for 5-6-year-old children in preschool educational institutions. It is unclear and unproven by what principles the Ministry was guided in planning the anti-corruption topic for this age group.
Then the participants were divided into 4 groups and modeled their anti-corruption education program according to the abilities of different age groups.
The practical work was quite interesting also because one of the graduation topics of the school is anti-corruption education.
ALA President Karen Zadoyan ended the lecture with the famous words of Lee Kuan Yew: “It is easy to start off with high moral standards, strong convictions, and determination to bead down corruption. But it is difficult to live up to these good intentions unless the leaders are strong and determined enough to deal with all transgressors, and without exceptions.”
The Anti-Corruption School for Young Leaders was founded by Karen Zadoyan, the President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, a member of the Anti-Corruption Policy Council. “The Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO is organizing the Anti-Corruption School for Young Leaders in cooperation with the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia.
The information partner of the Anti-Corruption School for Young Leaders is Iravaban.net, independent professional news website.
