NGOs concerned about changes
Non-governmental organizations have raised their concerns over the modifications and additions in the RA law on "Non-Governmental Organizations".
Over 100 NGOs see a great risk and a real danger in these changes. According to them, one of the risks is that this bill makes NGOs directly dependent on the RA Ministry of Justice because it makes an attempt to "set limits on one of the basic principles of a democratic society, that is, the right to form unions."
As one expert Arsen Stepanyan told "A1+", they are not against changes in the law and are in favor of improvement, especially based on the proposals presented by the NGOs. However, it turns out that "the proposals have been ignored, remained unanswered and the RA Ministry of Justice has developed a bill and kept it secret from the society and the interested parties."
According to Stepanyan, that is either a the result of non-professional work or it was done intentionally. "It turns out that the RA Prime Minister's announcement that all ministries must work transparently doesn't refer to the Ministry of Justice, which acts however it pleases. Official announcements and actions don't correspond."
The NGOs expect a response and demand that the RA Government call back the bill to reconsider it. Arsen Stepanyan says that an attempt was made to facilitate the activities of NGOs, but what happened was the opposite. For instance, according to the draft, the NGOs must hold general assemblies once every four years and they are obligated to present an 11-point report to the Ministry and the taxation service every year.
"The problem gets more complicated and creates a new bureaucratic mechanism that presupposes corruption risks. The Ministry wants the information from the taxation service and is indirectly implementing inspections," Stepanyan said.
