Armenian NGOs call for withdrawing amended draft law "On Public Organizations"November 5, 2009 - 19:03 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - On October 5, American University's (AUA) Business Center hosted public discussion over the bill on making changes in, and amendments to, RA law "On Public Organizations". Discussion was organized upon the initiative of AUA Provost and Vice President Lucig Danielian, expert of public organizations' initiative group Arsen Stepanyan, lawyer Tachat Ter-Stepanyan and Armenian public sector representatives.In his speech, Arsen Stepanyan criticized the draft law, noting that it received Government's approval and was sent to Parliament without public discussions. He called for withdrawing the bill and starting discussions between Government and public sector. With regard to separate clauses contained in draft law, he pointed out the unacceptability of imposing on NGOs obligation to submit report to social security fund (in addition to Tax Service) and get it printed in newspapers which have no less than 1000 copies. The latter, he said, creates additional financial burden for organizations. "Such reports should reflect all the activities of organization, changes in its management structure and financial resources of past year," Stepanyan stressed. In addition he said that proposed changes are difficult to bring to life, since Armenia has 6 thousand public organizations, which will be unable to submit January-March reports and get them published in papers. "It follows from here that newspapers that day should publish more 100 NGO reports," expert noted. Top stories The number of state universities will be reduced from 23 to 8 by 2030, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan has said. From September 21 to November 11, a total of 2,820 Russians registered at a place of residence in Armenia, the police has said. The situation on the contact line between Karabakh and Azerbaijan was relatively stable overnight, the Defense Army says. Defense Minister Suren Papikyan has visited the southern Armenian province of Syunik, the Defense Ministry reported on March 18. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. Baku: EU, U.S. share responsibility for Armenia’s “destabilizing actions” Azerbaijan has declared that the European Union and the United States will share responsibility for any destabilizing actions of Armenia |