The new Draft NGO Law was amended at the last moment and the provision on the organizations with restricted membership was added. “Organizations can define in their charters and set two types of filters: quantitative and qualitative. The qualitative filters existed in the former law as well. For example, only representatives of the definite profession. I.e. lawyers could be member of the professional organization. This is already filtering, and other persons cannot be members. Currently, such filters can be applied. And in case of quantitative, it may decide that the organization is a research organization, and it is not needed to have outside members who may have influence as well,” Mr. Karen Zadoyan, President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project Manager said at the training for NGOs on the New NGO Law, which was held today in the Gavar City of Gegharkunik marz.
Mr. Zadoyan referred to the regulations of the founding meeting of the organizations saying, “The decision on foundation of the organization must be adopted unanimously. In case where there are two persons and one was against then the organization will not be established.”
According to the speaker, the information in the protocol of the meeting of the organization’s supreme body about the place of holding the meeting results in spatial interpretations. There have been cases when the registering authority requested to indicate in the meeting minutes the place of holding the meeting as well as its address. This according to the speaker is not legitimate. “If you state that the organization’s supreme body meeting was held in Gavar, it is enough. If you would like to provide additional information to the registering body, the law allows it. In addition the names of the persons participating in the meeting, their number, the agenda of the meeting, results and decisions should be mentioned as well,” the project manager said.
The provision of engaging in entrepreneurial activity has been repeatedly discussed in the scope of the new law. Today Karen Zadoyan approached this question from another perspective. He viewed the issue from the perspective of the Law on Profit Tax. “The law provides gratuitous assets (including member fees) are not considered as revenues. You provide services to your beneficiaries. SRC officials tend to the grant funds shall be taxable profit. Here there is a major problem from the aspect of NGOs, as they all provided services to their beneficiaries and so over the years it was not subject to profit taxed. But according to the interpretation of the law all the organizations that provide services for third parties should be considered under that provision. Moreover, we are talking about free services,” Karen Zadoyan said.
Members of non-governmental organizations participating in the training, considered this circumstance a major obstacle, stressing that the public sector should make a common opinion in this regard.
After the training, ALA President provided individual counseling to the representatives of NGOs who wanted to learn details about the new changes and had private matters.
Notably, the training is conducted in the scope of the Europe Days.
The “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project is implemented with the financial support of the European Union by the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO in cooperation with its partners; Agora Central Europe o.p.s (an NGO from the Czech Republic), Armenian Center for Democratic Education-CIVITAS, “International Center for Human Development” Public Organization, SME Cooperation Association and Union of Communities of Armenia.
Gevorg Tosunyan
Aleksander Sargsyan
