Author: Garnik Tadevosian

 15:52,

YEREVAN, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS. Mining raises many issues for communities. What minerals are being developed? Where are the mines? Who owns these mines? What kinds of ore are produced? In what form and to which countries are they exported? Armenia’s accession to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) helped bring the answer to these kinds of questions and more public and transparent, the World Bank said in an article entitled “Armenia’s Journey Towards Responsible Mining”.

As in many countries, mining can be a sensitive topic in Armenia, the article says. It notes that civil society follows mining developments closely to demand better protection of the environment.

The World Bank says that the Armenian government hoped to improve the management of natural resources by making it more transparent, accountable, and participatory. It grew interested in the EITI and, in 2015, announced its intention to join. “Within a year, Armenia met all the preconditions for joining the EITI, and its membership application was approved in 2017”, it says.

The WB says that the country’s legislation did not ensure full transparency and accountability from the sector. The National Assembly made legislative changes to require the publication of large amounts of financial information, such as tax payment data by companies as well as data on extraction and exports, charitable activities, and socio-economic support projects in communities — reporting this information annually became legally required. This information is reflected in the EITI annual national reports.

According to the article, in 2019, Armenia took on responsibilities beyond the scope of mandatory requirements, which ensured even greater transparency.

“Armenia made remarkable achievements in its implementation of the Standard. At the 2019 EITI Global Conference in Paris, Armenia received the EITI Chair’s Award for implementing the Standard in an innovative and resolute manner, as well as for effective multi-stakeholder governance”, the article says.

“I have personally followed the process with great interest. Armenia has achieved remarkable progress. Out of the 54 countries, Armenia is among the nine that have received the highest possible assessment, and it has only been three and a half years since Armenia began implementing the EITI; in that regard, its accomplishments are really commendable”, Mark Robinson – Director of the EITI International Secretariat, said.

For civil society representatives and journalists, the new requirement to disclose the beneficial owners of metal extracting companies was a unique opportunity, the WB said. In Armenia, it had often been quite difficult to obtain information regarding beneficial ownership, it added.

“Armenia`s success story is ongoing and there is still more that can be done.  Future reforms are going to be geared at mitigating environmental impact. The Government is continuing to develop a strategy for the sector by engaging all interested parties”, the article says.

Armenia steps up mental health community services for populations affected by the armed conflict with WHO and EU support

 21:21,

YEREVAN, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS. The World Health Organization (WHO) in cooperation with the European Commission and Ministry of Health of Armenia (MoH) launched the Mental Health Gap Action Program (mhGAP) in Armenia for populations affected by armed conflict, ARMENPRESS was informed from WHO Armenia Office.

With the slogan – Mental Health for All! – the mhGAP programme in Armenia aims at   strengthening community-based mental health care to reduce mental health and psychosocial suffering and promote the wellbeing of population affected by armed conflict, thus improving their access to mental health and psychosocial support. The mhGAP programme will be implemented in Yerevan and four Marzes- Kotayk, Ararat, Gegharkunik, and Syunik, ensuring that 20% of the primary health care facilities in these regions are enabled to provide quality and evidence-based community mental health and psychosocial support. 

On 16 June, the main aims and objectives of the mhGAP programme were presented during the meeting with head of the EU delegation to Armenia Andrea Wiktorin, representatives of European Commission’s Directorate-General for EU Neighborhood and Enlargement, local government, and civil society. 

Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin emphasized the importance of the mental health and the role of the joint mhGAP programme in addressing this issue. “Putting mental health as one of the priorities in healthcare agenda will improve the well-being of individuals, families and communities” said the Ambassador. 

"Ministry of Health highly appreciates this important partnership with WHO and EU. The mhGAP program has a great potential to improve access to quality mental health services in the communities and to address the mental health conditions and psychosocial suffering of the population affected by the armed conflict" said Kristine Galstyan, mhGAP programme focal point at the MoH. 

The launch was followed by a stakeholder meeting in Kapan city, Syunik, with the presence of MoH and WHO representatives, and Syunik Regional Administration and Managers of the health care facilities. The participants discussed mental health service gaps in the Marze and opportunities of providing quality and timely Mental Health interventions for people in need at the primary health care and community levels.    

WHO representative to Armenia, Dr. Jihane Tawilah, said, “To bring about real change, we need to work towards building more resilient systems in Armenia. We hope that the mhGAP programme will facilitate continuous capacity building of primary healthcare workers and create both momentum and experience for a national policy that scale up the integration of mental health care within primary health services in Armenia” ․ 

The Mental Health Gap Action Program, launched globally by WHO in 2008, is to enable scale-up of services for mental, neurological and substance use conditions in non-specialized health care settings. 

Implementation of the Mental Health Gap Action Program (mhGAP) in Armenia is a joint effort of the European Commission's Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid department, World Health Organization and Ministry of Health of Armenia. The program will provide evidence-based guidance and tools to integrate mental health into general health care provision in Yerevan and 4 Marzes of Armenia, supporting health workers in their daily practice and ensuring access to quality care for the population affected by the armed conflict.

 12:43,

YEREVAN, JUNE 14, ARMENPRESS. The European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) is a good platform of cooperation, opportunities and exchange of experience. More than 30 news agencies around the world are members of this organization.

EANA Secretary General, Alexandru Giboi, and EANA Board Member, CEO of PA Media Group, Clive Marshall, visited Armenpress on June 13.

Speaking about their visit to Armenia, Clive Marshall said they are in Armenia to meet with the people from Armenpress and also with the general media, in order to progress the application that has been made by Armenpress to join EANA. “We had very interesting two-days learning more about the country, its history and its media”, he said.

Presenting the main mission of their organization, the EANA Secretary General stated: “The main goal is to actually create an environment of cooperation and insight sharing for the members. It’s an environment out of which each member can draw something useful for the evolution of the agency that they represent”.

EANA attaches great importance to the cooperation and empowerment of its members. He says that the core values that they represent are those of journalism, which they see as lying at the basis of the democratic societies. “So we try to empower our members to become the flag-bearers of these journalistic values to the, let’s say, larger goal of improving the democratic societies in which they function”, he noted.

Clive Marshall in turn stresses the necessity of news agencies to be “independent, impartial, balanced and perhaps most importantly in today’s world, in digital media, to be trustworthy, so that people, that are consuming news agency content, can trust that content and know that it comes as a reliable source”.

As for the their expansion plans, Alexandru Giboi said their organization became more digital because of COVID-19, adding that they are looking towards engaging a lot more with the stakeholder environment. “Personally I think that increasing connections in Europe of course, among various sectors, not only the media sector, the technology sector, consultancy, everything should be one of the keys to the evolution of EANA, and our members, of course. So in the future, I think, the cooperation is key”, the EANA Secretary General said.

Clive Marshall notes: “I think from the perspective of my news agency, the PA Media Group in London, it’s important that we are in a position to transfer our experience and skills to some of the small members of our organization”. He says that if the membership application of Armenpress succeeds, they can exchange information and knowledge that can help Armenpress develop and grow, which according to him, is good for Armenia, is good for the news agency and the consumers of the news content as well. Clive Marshall informed that they have discussed this issue with Director of Armenpress Narine Nazaryan.

As for the opportunities provided by EANA, the Secretary General said they are huge. “First of all, first and foremost, and I am saying this as Secretary General of EANA and also as a former director of a news agency which is member of EANA, and that is Agerpres Romania. You, as a member, benefit from the huge level of insight which is, actually, granted by the diverse membership that we have. Interaction, networking, access to ideas is one of the most important gains for a member agency, in my opinion. They are not, let’s say, in a way isolated anymore. They are part of this big family which we are. And we help our members anyway possible”, he added.

Clive Marshall highlighted the friendship and the community of the organization. He says that one of the greatest benefits of the organization is that it is possible to meet around 30 news agency heads, share experiences, concerns and opportunities.

EANA members are such news agencies as Agence France Presse (France), Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA, Italy), BTA (Bulgaria), Agerpres (Romania), CAN (Cyprus), EFE (Spain), the news agencies of Andorra, Greece, Austria, Belgium, Slovakia, Denmark and other countries.

 12:40, 30 May 2022

YEREVAN, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS. A young environmental activist has thrown a cake at Italian painter Leonardo da Vinci's painting Gioconda (Mona Lisa) on display in the Louvre in Paris, TASS reports citing the BFM TV channel.

According to it, the incident took place on Sunday. The video footage posted on Twitter shows a young man throwing a piece of cake and smearing it on the armored glass that protects one of the world's most famous artworks. He was able to get as close as possible by disguising himself as a disabled woman; there is a special passageway in front of the painting for wheelchair users, which is closer than the corridor for regular visitors.

“Think about the Earth. There are people who are destroying the Earth. Think about that. Artists tell you, 'Think of the Earth.' All artists, think of the Earth. That's why I did this. Think about the planet”, he said in one of the videos, which shows him rolling a wheelchair accompanied by museum security.

The Louvre itself has not yet released any statement about the incident. According to the TV channel, employees of the Louvre washed armored glass, the painting was not damaged.

 15:32, 30 May 2022

YEREVAN, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS. International Boxing Association President Umar Kremlev praised the organizers of the Yerevan EUBC Men’s Elite European Boxing Championships.

“The European Boxing Championship is taking place on a high level. I want to say thank you to the Armenian people, thank you the government for such a wonderful championship. I see that Armenians love boxing, this year Armenia became the capital of European boxing,” Kremlev told ARMENPRESS.

Speaking about the controversial Narek Manasyan vs. Emmanuel Reyes semifinal bout that ended in the judges giving a UD 5:0 win to Spain’s Reyes, which prompted boxing fans accusing the judges in robbing Manasyan of the victory and Manasyan himself refusing to leave the ring in a sign of protest, Kremlev said that the judges have made mistakes.

“A special commission is carrying out an investigation. As of this moment it is obvious that the judges were wrong. The commission will investigate,” he said.

When Manasyan was protesting the decision, Team Ukraine representatives joined him on the ring, claiming that their athletes were also robbed in the bout against Great Britain's boxers.