The public discussions of the Specialized Commission on Constitutional Reforms started today, on 15 July.
The first online public discussion was held with civil society organizations, members of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF) Armenian National Platform․ It was also open to the participation of other civil society organizations. The public discussion was organized by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association.
Before starting the discussion, the participants the participants honored with a minute of silence memory of the servicemen Smbat Gabrielyan, Grisha Matevosyan, Captain Sos Elbakyan, and Major Garush Hambardzumyan, who were killed by the enemy while defending the borders of the homeland.
President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, member of the Specialized Commission on Constitutional Reforms Mr. Karen Zadoyan in his welcoming speech noted that the process of Constitutional reforms should be transparent and accountable, high inclusion and participation within different groups of the society should be maintained, including with the professional groups, parties, etc.
“It is very important that the text of the Constitution is accessible, affordable to the citizens and not overloaded. The new Constitution, in terms of content, must be legitimate․ Every citizen should consider it his own, discussions and changes should be made, taking into account the Armenian context and the lessons learned so far,” Karen Zadoyan said.
Mr. Yeghishe Kirakosyan, Chairman of the Specialized Commission on Constitutional Reforms, noted that the Commission had had heated discussions on various issues in the last few months, and also discussed the need to properly model the process of changes and have a roadmap. “And at this moment, even without having a finished product, we decided to start the public discussion. I do not think anyone will want to repeat the experience of the previous process of constitutional amendments, that is, a text written in a closed room, which was not initially communicated, was communicated at the end or already in the draft of final amendments,” he said.
Yeghishe Kirakosyan also presented the work done by the Commission for the period from February to the present.
“Since the revolution, and even earlier, we have witnessed the need for constitutional changes and attach great importance to the legitimacy of the process. From the very beginning, we considered the process of elaborating the Constitutional amendments only with lawyers to be problematic and we hope that this gap will be possible to be filled with the involvement of various specialists during the sectoral discussions,” Ms Lusine Hakobyan, Coordinator of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, President of “Europe in Law Association” NGO mentioned in her speech.
It should be noted that representatives of more than 70 civil society organizations participated in the public discussion.
The participants of the discussion asked questions to the members of the Commission, presented their concerns and suggestions, which will be collected and discussed in the Specialized Commission on Constitutional Reforms.