Strengthening Civil Society in Armenia (Financed by NED and OSCE)
Aiming at fostering greater cross-border networking and support for Armenian civil society, this project included two assessment meetings for representatives from Armenian civil society and the international community present in Yerevan; an international conference with Armenian and Central and Eastern European NGOs; and a four-day study visit to Brussels for a selected group of Armenian civil society representatives.
The two Assessment Meetings (one for civil society representatives and one for international community representatives based in Yerevan) focused on reaching a clear vision of the current situation in the country, but also on proposing specific recommendations and concrete measures to ease domestic tensions and lessen polarization with a view to next year's parliamentary elections in Armenia.
The meetings were organized in separate panels, addressing the following four thematic issues: (1) Political Pluralism and Freedom of Assembly, focusing on the state of the opposition and the potential for change, and restrictions on the freedom of assembly; (2) Electoral Reforms, with an assessment of the most recent set of state-initiated reforms prior to the coming 2012 parliamentary election; (3) Freedom of Expression, including an analysis of the media coverage of current developments, the impact of the June 2010 amendments to the Law on Television and Broadcasting, the composition of the National Radio and Television Commission (NRTC), legislative safeguards guaranteeing media freedom and new developments in terms of criminalization of libel and slander; (4) Judicial Reforms, including the recent appointments of a new Minister of Justice and an Ombudsman, a discussion on the Armenian government's "2009-2011 Strategic Action Program for Judicial Reform," and its failures to uphold the due process of law after the detention and sentencing of opposition figures during the March 2008 post-election crisis.
The international conference organized on the 14th and 15th of April 2011 under the title "Supporting Civil Society Organizations in Armenia" concentrated on assessing recent developments in Armenia while facilitating a constructive exchange of views and the sharing of best practices and lessons learned from Central and Eastern Europe. The conference aimed at encouraging a positive and interactive discussion in three topic areas (working groups): (1) Strengthening Democratic Institutions through Civic Participation and Free Media; (2) A Case Study of Civic Participation in Governance - Civil Society Involvement in Environmental Protection; (3) Strengthening Good Governance - Civil Society Involvement in Increasing Government Transparency and Combating Corruption.
Aimed at raising awareness among high-level stakeholders at the EU-level, the Armenian study visit to Brussels concentrated on advocacy, networking and information sharing activities. The meetings established new and important contacts between Armenian and European stakeholders, serving the overall objective of increasing dialogue between selected CSOs from Armenia and stakeholders in the EU - Armenia relationship.
The visiting group was composed of representatives from Armenian CSOs active in the fields of media freedom, accountability, transparency and good governance. In order to ensure the link with the previous project activities, the moderators of the above mentioned conference working groups took part in the visit to Brussels as well.