Around 80 representatives of Armenian local and national authorities, civil society and international organisations met on 4 March 2020 during the Conference on political integrity of local elected representatives, held in Yerevan, Armenia.
Participants stressed the need to set higher standards of integrity and to build a strong institutional architecture in Armenia which would allow for regular dialogue between national and local authorities.
The exchanges led to the establishment of the Community of Practice on Public Integrity and Ethics in Local Governance in Armenia, which will act as a coordinating group for the localisation of national anti-corruption policies and their implementation by local authorities in Armenia. Its members will advocate for a better application of European standards on public ethics, transparent and open governance and citizen participation throughout Armenia, in order to restore citizens’ trust in public institutions and local authorities in particular.
The conference was followed on 5 March by a first meeting of the Community of Practice to discuss relevant tools – guidelines, models and methods – to assess corruption risks at local level, but also to develop local strategies and a model code of conduct for all those involved in local governance in Armenia.
To facilitate the work of the Community of Practice, four working groups have been established on [1] anti-corruption policies, [2] public integrity, [3] transparency in public procurement and [4] transparency and openness in government.
These events are organised in the framework of the project “Strengthening the Communities Association of Armenia and Transparent, Participatory Local Governance in Armenia”. It is implemented by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, with the financial support of the Swiss government, in the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Armenia 2019-2022.
- News item “Armenia: Conference on Political Integrity and Ethics in Local Governance”
- News item “Andrew Dawson: “Corruption continues to be one of the major risks for democracy and governance””
- Webpage “Preventing corruption and promoting public Ethics”
- Handbook on Transparency and Citizen Participation: Armenia – Available in English and
Garo Paylan: Putin Made Erdogan Sit under the Statue of Catherine the Great who Symbolizes Russia’s Victory over the Ottomans
Erdoğan suffered a great defeat in Russia.
Putin her istediğini aldı.
Yetmezmiş gibi, Erdoğan’ın ekibini Osmanlı’yı defalarca yenen Katerina heykelinin altına dizdi.
Rusya’nın 1878’deki Osmanlı’ya karşı zaferini betimleyen biblo ise Erdoğan’ın tam arkasındaydı.
What a disgrace!
Children of Armenia’s boarding schools facing many problems after closure of institutions
From January 1, 2020, the last 4 boarding schools of Armenia, including two in Gyumri, one in Byureghavan and the other in Dilijan, were closed by the government’s decision. Due to the lack of funds and debts, the “Bird House” boarding school under the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin was also shut down at the beginning of the year.
The government described the closure of boarding schools as a move to fight despair. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs also argued that the decision was aimed at providing children with the right to live in their families, which, however, does not mean that the ministry or the government relinquishes its responsibility to these children. Simply, the form of assistance has changed.
As a result of the closure of the boarding schools 194 children returned to their biological parents, and 43 children whose return to their families were at risk were taken to the Fridtjof Nansen Orphanage in Gyumri, with the government delaying its close until June 25, 2020.
Although the government assures that the quality of the children’s life will change significantly when living in their families, the reality is entirely different.
Speaking to Panorama.am, Vahan Tumasyan, Chairman of the Shirak Center NGO dealing with social issues, said that some of the children who returned home from boarding schools have ended up in a critical situation.
“Many children who attend boarding schools had family-related problems. Living in boarding schools for a long time, the children grew up with the greenhouse effect: they always had everything made ready for them, failing to gain the experience of organizing their lives on then own,” he said.
Tumasyan said that Shirak Center NGO donated an apartment to one of the families the mother of which died years ago and her four children were attending a boarding school, but the children failed to organize their lives there.
“For example, we had a TV set up, it was just a matter of turning it on, but a week later, when we visited the family, we saw that they had not event turned it on. In addition, philanthropists had given the family money to cover utility payments until spring, but it turned out that the money had been spent on something else, due to which the gas supply to the house had been suspended. In addition, the children do not have a comfortable life at home now because their father has decided to bring a new wife,” the chairman said.
According to Tumasyan, before sending children back to home from boarding schools, a huge amount of work had to be done to prepare them for a new rhythm of life. “In another case, there is a child who is with his father one day and his mother the other day. In many cases children need adoption, but the issue remains up in the air. Many years later they express regret when bad things happen to those kids,” he said.
“When a child is left to the whims of fate, he or she is in a vulnerable position, and anything can happen. For this reason, all children should be monitored to find out how they behave after living in boarding schools and how they organize their daily routine. They need some support for a while before they learn to manage things on their own,” he said.
Sona Martirosyan, the spokesperson for the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, told Panorama.am that if a family has social and economic problems which makes it impossible to organize the child care there, the socio-economic problems of that family should be resolved and the child should return home.
“Poverty or other social issues should not separate a child from his/her family. For this reason, we have studied the problems of all families and provided some support depending on the nature of the problems in the family. For example, parents of such families have been offered jobs, some have rejected them, while others are employed now. The houses of many families have been renovated, with house rents being compensated in other cases. Children are provided with necessary items – clothes, stationery, food, but the ministry does not hand over cash to the family members,” Martirosyan said.
She assured that social workers are in constant contact with all children who have returned home.
Asked if all the children have adapted to the family lifestyle, Sona Martirosyan said that if social workers came across any problems, they would immediately report it. “There have been no such cases,” she said.
As for the fate of the 43 children housed at the Fridtjof Nansen Orphanage in Gyumri if their return home continues to be risky, Martirosyan said that in that case other functioning orphanages will take care of those children.
Armenia to start testing teenage girls for infertility
Medical professionals believe that this will help prevent the progression of various diseases and, in the long run, help the country overcome its demographic crisis
In Armenia, girls will be tested for infertility starting in their teens, and given treatment when necessary.
On March 5, Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan proposed an intermediate program to support reproductive health. Torosyan says that early diagnosis and treatment can help prevent the development of certain diseases associated with infertility.
The infertility rate in Armenia is 14.8%, a relatively high number for a small country.
“The World Health Organization says that if the country’s infertility rate reaches 15%, the situation would be considered critical, as it affects birth rate and population. Therefore, we are doing everything we can to lower this number,” says Gayane Avakyan, head of the Department of Maternal and Reproductive Health at the Ministry of Health.
There is a proposal to increase the number of prenatal checkups, as well as health check ups for couples.
These measures are expected to increase the 2020 birth rate in Armenia by several hundred children, and by 2021, to increase it by more than a thousand.
These measures are necessary because Armenia is experiencing a demographic crisis. The UN forecast shows that the country is gradually approaching depopulation, when the mortality rate exceeds the birth rate.
Media Advocate ‘concerned’ by Armenian Public TV’s work style
From February 24 to March 4, 2020, the Public Television of Armenia, operating at the expense of taxpayers allocated 160 minutes 16 seconds of its air to the topic of the constitutional referendum, 19 minutes 45 seconds of which were allocated to the “No” campaign, 38 minutes 41 seconds to the “Yes” campaign and 101 minutes 50 seconds were neutral remarks. The Public TV also aired “Yes” and “No” campaign video clips of up to 1-minute duration each.
The Media Advocate initiative reports that the Public TV of Armenia conducted a hidden propaganda of the “Yes” headquarters. A publicly-funded television station has presented a report on the real authors of the “Yes” logo. The report was aired several times, for two consecutive days; on February 27 and 28. It is worth mentioning that no such report was aired for the “No” side of the campaign.
The initiative also said that Hayk Hovhannisyan, a member of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), was the guest of the Public TV. In an interview, referring to the Constitutional Court, Hovhannisyan stated that it had made a wrong decision regarding the SJC. That is, no contrary opinion was presented. This is also a violation of professional ethics, and the fact of presenting such a unilateral interview in the period preceding the referendum, may also be viewed as “Yes” propaganda.
Media Advocate urges Public Television, operating at the expense of taxpayers, to maintain impartiality and to cover the campaign of referendum on amendments to the Armenian Constitution scheduled for April 5, in keeping with the principles of equality and professional ethics.