The elaboration of the Draft Law on Non Governmental Organizations was a complicated process with harsh dialogues, debates and disagreements, but in the end it brought to the creation of a mutually agreed version, acceptable for both the Government and the Civil Society. Mr. Hoa-Binh Adjemian, Head of Cooperation Section of the EU Delegation in Armenia said in the interview with the journalists.
The EU funded ‘’Support to Democratic Governance in Armenia” project with a budget of 950,000 Euros has been supporting the discussions of the Draft law on Non Governmental Organizations since 2014. The Project is implemented the British Council in cooperation with partner organizations.
Arsen Mkrtchyan, the Deputy Minister of Justice mentioned that a number of provisions were revised in the new version of the Draft Law, considering the issues raised by the NGOs.
In particular, NGO representatives argued that the requirement for NGOs to submit a report on the azdarar.am website on annual basis can become a tool for the state for making unnecessary interventions, especially considering the fact that in the case of non-compliance, penalties are quite severe.
As a result of the revision of the Draft law this provision was amended: public reporting requirement will be mandatory for NGOs, which are funded by the state or public funds. NGOs that are funded from private sources will report to their donor organizations and members.
Another problematic issues of concern was that the sanctions envisaged by the law for prohibited actions were rather strict and the government could even apply to the court with request to dissolve the NGO in case where the latter refused to present a report for several times.
A. Mkrtchyan said that the provision would be reviewed as well, and it is likely that the issue of liquidation of the NGO will be considered as an extreme measure, and a more lenient version will be introduced, including temporary suspension of activities.
Compared to the current law, the project has a number of advantages; there are innovations that will significantly simplify the activities of NGOs.
In particular, Mr. John Wright, Team Leader of the ‘’Support to Democratic Governance in Armenia” project stressed that after approval of the Draft Law, the NGOs will be legally able to involve volunteers in their activities and carry out entrepreneur activities without establishing another commercial organization. According to him, these changes will greatly facilitate the work of organizations.
He said that initially there were concerns that the Draft Law would reflect exactly the same provisions that existed in the similar Russian Law, but this law is a proof that the RA Government considered the NGO sector is free and should be free in its activities.
