During the 30 days, in the period of 23 March to 23 April, the lawyers of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association (ALA) provided free consultation to citizens on 714 issues.
The questions were received both online through the organization’s Facebook pages and by phone.
Lusine Nalbandyan, lawyer at the Armenian Lawyer’s Association said, that ALA during its activity, has always provided legal assistance to citizens, CSOs and business companies. “When the ALA announced the provision of free legal advice, we focused all our efforts in that direction, involving not only the lawyers of the Yerevan Central Office, but also the lawyers of our regional offices. The questions were received from citizens, economic companies, CSOs and others. The main issues are related to the social status of citizens, the employment relationship between them and employers. There are also many issues related to the government’s plans to neutralize the socio-economic consequence caused by the new epidemic. A number of citizens, those who were involved as beneficiaries faced difficulties and could not receive the support provided to them. A number of companies engaged in entrepreneurial activities say that they have economic losses, but are not included in the programs to neutralize economic consequences,” the lawyer said.
Lusine Nalbandyan noted that citizens were not limited to one question, however the answers were provided to all the questions, as completely as possible. She also mentioned that there were cases when after receiving clarification that they cannot benefit from this or that measure of the Government’s support program, the citizen got angry and blamed the lawyers, however the lawyers approach such cases with understanding.
Not only do citizens ask questions or get angry, but they also make suggestions and recommendations: “We received a letter from the BizProtect.am whistleblowing platform launched by the ALA that the work of drivers carrying out passenger transportation has been stopped, and in fact they are now in difficult social conditions due to restrictions. After studying the facts presented in the report the expert team of BizProtect, submitted a letter to the office of the RA Commandant Tigran Avinyan.
We are pleased that by the decision of the Government of April 16 the scope of the 8th event has been expanded, which benefits the citizens and individual entrepreneurs involved in the field of land transport activities (minibuses/rout taxis). We also received a recommendation from a dance studio at the school, as their activities have been suspended. Unfortunately, in the 8th program of the program to neutralize the social consequences of coronavirus, the beneficiaries included sports (sports clubs and swimming pools), entertainment and other leisure activities, however, no reference was made to cultural institutions and individuals carrying out activities in the cultural sector,” Lusine Nalbandyan said.
Notably, considering the fact that on 16 March, the RA Government declared a state of emergency on the whole territory of the Republic of Armenia due to the spread of a new type of coronavirus, and a number of restrictions related to the labor rights, on 23 March ALA issued a statement on providing free legal advice and counselling to the citizens.
