ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT AMENDS LAW ON INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
news.am
Feb 25 2010
Armenia
By 70 to four, the RA Parliament has adopted amendments to the RA
Law on International Agreements in their second reading.
The new law provides for the termination and suspension of signing
and ratification of international agreements in Armenia at any
stage before the process is completed. The Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) (ARFD) did not take part in the voting
as the amendments proposed by it were not incorporated in the draft.
The ARF proposed that the RA Parliament be entitled to terminate
or suspend the procedure of adopting international agreements. The
ARF also proposed an amendment on introducing reservations into
international agreements.
The ARF also drafted another relevant bill and submitted it to
the Government. Speaking in Parliament, RA Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian stated that the ARF-submitted proposals were not considered
as the Government is now considering the ARF-submitted bill. According
to the Minister, the bill is a most complicated document, and the
Government is not in a hurry to give its opinion. As regards the
ARF’s proposal for introduction of reservations into international
agreements, Nalbandian stressed that reservations are normally
introduced into multilateral, rather than bilateral, agreements.
The Heritage parliamentary faction voted against the bill as
well. "We do not, as a rule, vote for incomplete documents," said
Stepan Safaryan, Press Secretary of the Heritage faction.
Experts account for the hasty adoption of the law by the RA Parliament
by RA President Serzh Sargsyan’s recent statement that Armenia was to
introduce relevant amendments into the order of signing, ratifying
or invalidating international agreements in case Armenia decides to
withdraw from the Armenian-Turkish dialogue.