Armenian parliament adopts new law on alternative service

Armenian parliament adopts new law on alternative service

Arminfo
22 Nov 04

Yerevan, 22 November: The Armenian parliament adopted a new draft law on
alternative service in its second and final reading today.

The deputy chairman of the Armenian National Assembly, Vaan Ovanesyan, who
presented the draft law, said that the document had not undergone changes after
the first reading. Certain defects of the provisions of the [old] law on
alternative service emerged when it was put into practice. The new draft law was
compiled given the practice of applying it.

[Passage omitted: details of the document]

The deputy speaker said that a sharp increase in the number of applicants for
the alternative service is not expected after it, possibly, comes into
effect. He said that by mid-October, the district military commissariats had
received all in all 20 relevant applications. Azerbaijan has not yet adopted a
similar document, Ovanesyan added.

We should say that the [old] law on alternative service in Armenia, on the
approval of which the Council of Europe insisted, took effect on 1 July 2004.
The conscripts who refuse to serve in the armed forces for religious reasons are
allowed to chose the alternative service.