At the initiative of the “I have honor” faction of the RA NA, on April 2, parliamentary hearings were held, the topic of which was the draft statement of the RA National Assembly “Regarding the current state of state-national church relations”. Deputies and interested citizens participated in the hearings.
Before going to the speeches, the participants of the hearings honored the memory of the victims of the April four-day war with a minute of silence and standing.
Speaking, the head of the faction, Hayk Mamijanyan, said that they received a letter from the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church informing them that the invited clergyman could not participate in the hearing due to the ritual ceremonies of Maundy Thursday.
Hayk Mamijanyan also informed that the discussion of the statement draft in the NA Standing Committee on State-Legal Affairs was postponed for up to two months, so that as a result of the hearings, an updated version would be presented to the committee for consideration.
The purpose of the draft statement authored by the NA faction “I have honor” is to respond to the situation formed in the public and legal field recently, which refers to the constitutional foundations of relations between state and religious organizations and the practical problems of their application.
Draft statement here.
Tigran Abrahamyan, secretary of the “I have an honor” faction, spoke about the crisis created in the relations between the state and the church, in his opinion. According to the draft of the statement, many phenomena have appeared recently that raise serious questions about the borders of the state and national relations. According to Tigran Abrahamyan, the draft statement offers concrete practical solutions in this respect. The first of them is legal transparency, that is, law enforcement and investigative bodies must have clear public standards on how they will take into account freedom of conscience and religion in their actions. The second is the circumstance of international legal advice. It is recommended to contact the Venice Commission to get a professional opinion on the limits of state intervention in the internal management of religious organizations and to what extent the courts and other bodies should be guided in such disputes. Among the next steps proposed by the project are the depoliticization of justice, the active role of the Human Rights Defender.
At the end of the speech, the secretary of the faction noted that the purpose of the hearing is to voice a clear principle: the state is obliged to respect the autonomy of religious organizations.
Davit Harutyunyan, Deputy Chairman of RPA, Executive Director of “Luys” Foundation, Davit Harutyunyan highlighted the delimitation of the state and the church, which includes the principle of non-interference, the guarantees of freedom of conscience and religion, as well as the autonomy of religious communities.
The participants of the parliamentary hearings in their speeches considered the discussed topic to be topical and urgent. Reference was made to the national security strategy, state-church relations, rule of law, protection of human rights, as well as freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
In the final speech, Davit Harutyunyan informed that many of the participants presented suggestions regarding the announcement.
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