POS OF ARMENIA CALL TO WITHDRAW DRAFT ON LOBBYING

Panorama.am
14:50 07/06/06

The initiative group of a number of public organizations (POs) call the
government of Armenia to withdraw the Draft Law on Lobbying. Several
POs expressed their concern in a press conference today that the draft
will put obstacles in front of their lobbying activities. According to
the representative of Internews Araik Kocharyan, the mentioned draft
will subordinate “civic initiatives to the government.” In the words of
Levon Nersisyan, chairman of Union on Aid to Children with Disabilities
“Astghik”, “the draft creates extra bureaucratic obstacles.”

The draft was submitted by the ministry of justice in fall last
year. It was developed in cooperation with UNDP and UNIFEM. At the
moment, the draft is at the parliament and is approved by State
Legal Commission.

It will be considered in the coming 4-day session (June 12-15).

The draft proposes a special license which authorizes
lobbying. Lobbying is prohibited to organizations funded from abroad,
according to the draft. Meanwhile, according to the representative of
Transparency International Sona Aivazyan, 90% of local POs are funded
externally. POs are also discontent that the same law regulates public
organizations and commercial organizations. “They may receive private
order for lobbying whereas POs protect the interest of the public,”
Sona Aivazyan told Panorama.am. In her words, nothing like that is
ever adopted in any country.

“They want to experiment on us and we protest,” she said.

It is officially stated that the law will fight poverty and
corruption. However, according to Sona Aivazyan, this law does not
fight corruption. On the contrary, it creates loopholes for its
enlargement.