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Today was the closing day of the What Future for Democracy and Civil Society Conference. Referring to the challenges of the international promotion of democracy, Artur Sakunts, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor, stated that the reports and articles on controlling civil society, presented during this conference,  unfortunately, did not give anything new, for example, on improving the role of NGOs in our country.

Moreover, it was mentioned that the presenters are international political agencies and make political decisions although the window is open for civil society institutions that can affect those decisions by presenting studies and alternative reports on human rights. 

Artur Sakunts mentioned that the conference presented the perspectives of the human rights organizations, their development processes, especially over the last twenty years, and the increase of the responsibilities and capacities of the states in the sphere of human rights, parallel to the development of civil society. ‘It should be noted that the issues raised during monitoring are very specific and professional, but their impact is still not on the level we expect,’ said Artur Sakunts.   Artur raised the example of the international committee for the prevention of torture which is very effective in reporting specific issues, however from the perspective of timeliness, it is only reported twice a year and the issues are too serious as long term periods do not contribute to impact the situation effectively.  

There was a reference to the Universal Periodical Report that has been put in action recently. Artur Sakunts noted that parallel to the increase of opportunities there is an insufficient use of those opportunities for fulfilling and meeting the standards on both national and international spheres. ‘The newlyindependent states have learned to master  a language in which the issues connected with human rights are presented with such vocabulary and terminology that many important contextual issues are left unnoticed or reveal imitated approaches. These are new challenges that need to be overcome by countries that have undertaken responsibilities towards human rights protection.’  According to Artur Sakunts, specific documentation should help overcome these manipulations. 

Levon Barseghyan, President of Asparez Journalists’ Club in Gyumri referred to the development projects, specifically to the Board of project beneficiaries of Millennium Challenge-Armenia. He argued that during the process of forming the board, several members were state officials, who also ran several NGOs. They came and joined the process of forming beneficiaries. ‘It is still hard for an American official to comprehend how a high-ranking state official, having a state job, has time to conduct social activities, and to become a supervising body. This is a cunning trick, and it is being done, so be careful,’ said Levon Barseghyan.   

He mentioned that after the start of the project, March 1st was the last drop (10 of peaceful protesters dead, 130 wounded, over 1300 arrested, 70 political prisoners), which significantly affected Armenia.  That is, the government had violated the indices of good governance and conducted improper and disproportionate governance. The events of March 1st were the last drop after which the Millennium Challenge Corporation was forced to warn the RA Government first and then, after not seeing any results, cut 58 million dollars from the project.

‘The speakers for the government are trying to insist that this has a political explanation, “that Americans don’t like us”.  The indices are calculated not by the United States Government but by a series of international organizations and the corporation only uses those indices,’ said Levon Barseghyan.  He added that as a result of this, the number of beneficiaries decreased from 750, 000 to 420,000. After this the government decided to reduce some other components of the project and build 17 water pumping stations instead of the initial 68 and the impact of the project was cut in half. ‘This is the result we have.’

Source: www.lragir.am