{"id":6764,"date":"2020-12-23T09:23:37","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T05:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armla.am\/en\/?p=6764"},"modified":"2020-12-24T17:10:29","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T13:10:29","slug":"online-discussion-in-public-private-dialogue-format-within-the-framework-of-the-development-of-the-5th-open-government-partnership-national-action-plan-good-governance-and-justice-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armla.am\/en\/6764.html","title":{"rendered":"Online discussion in public-private dialogue format within the framework of the development of the 5th Open Government Partnership National Action Plan: Good Governance and Justice Sector"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 22 December, an online discussion in the format of a public-private dialogue on the development of the Open Government\u00a0Partnership (OGP) National Action Plan 5 on the\u00a0Good Governance and Justice Sector<\/strong> sector<\/strong>\u00a0was held.<\/p>\n

The event was organized in the framework of the \u201cCo-creation Support for the 2020-2022 OGP National Action Plan\u201d project implemented by a consortium of 3 Non-Governmental Organizations \u201cArmavir Development Center\u201d, \u201cArmenian Lawyers\u2019 Association\u201d and \u201cFreedom of Information Center\u201d with the support of the \u201cOGP\u201d Support Unit.<\/p>\n

The aim of the initiative is to improve the governance system through the active involvement of civil society, to promote its efficiency, by increasing the level of transparency, credibility and accountability of state-citizen relations. In order to do this, government and civil society representatives develop action plans, setting out clear measures to achieve the goals of the Initiative.<\/p>\n

Ms Ani Harutyunyan, the representative of \u201cArmavir Development Center\u201d NGO<\/strong>, said in her opening remarks that the Armavir Development Center NGO had formed a consortium with the Armenian Lawyers\u2019 Association, and the Freedom of Information Center, to support the 5th OGP Action Plan to make the government more accountable. She said that in 2018\u00a0\u201cArmavir Development Center\u201d with the support of the World Bank implemented a program dedicated to the joint development and implementation of the 4th Open Government Partnership National Action Plan.<\/p>\n

The objective of the project was to create a package of commitments at the local-national level, which would promote the openness, transparency and participation of the Government.\u00a0She noted that at the launch of the 5th plan, they considered it necessary to improve the process of joint development of the plan, to ensure a comprehensive, dialogue of all stakeholders, and later the feedback, to raise the level of awareness on OGP issues.<\/p>\n

Ani Harutyunyan clarified that the goal of the forthcoming 5th program is to support the elaboration of an ambitious program of commitments at the community-national level, in favor of increasing the government\u2019s transparency and accountability, government\u2019s responsibility and citizen involvement.<\/p>\n

Ms. Lilya Afrikyan, OGP Armenia Program Coordinator under RA Prime Minister\u2019s Office\/RA Contact Person,\u00a0<\/strong>presented the OGP-Armenia relations.\u00a0She noted that justice is one of the main directions of OGP, and thirty percent of the commitments of OGP countries are related to justice. Armenia has had at least three commitments related to justice under the previous four programs.<\/p>\n

According to the speaker, regardless of priorities or challenges, justice is one of the main areas of activity for the Government.<\/p>\n

Ms Shushan Doydoyan, President of the \u201cFreedom of Information Center\u201d NGO<\/strong>, in the first part of the report\u00a0referred to freedom of speech, which, according to the speaker, is the cornerstone of human rights and justice, without which the rest is declarative.<\/p>\n

“The right to freedom of expression one of the components of which is the right to freedom of speech should be emphasized. This includes the right to association, receive and disseminate information. During the war, the right to freedom of expression was restricted, and even after the signing of the so-called peace document, restrictions were still in place for some time.<\/em><\/p>\n

The right to freedom of expression must be exercised, including the right to freedom of expression.\u00a0This includes the right to associate, to receive and to disseminate information.\u00a0During the war, the right to freedom of expression was restricted, and even after the signing of the so-called peace document, the restrictions were maintained for some time.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

According to Doydoyan, 62 citizens <\/em>and<\/em> 12 organizations were fined for abusing the right to freedom of speech, <\/em>and<\/em> the fines were quite high.\u00a0However, fines are the last resort the state must take.\u00a0In this regard, the speaker suggested that civil society carry out a process of fact-checking and literate consumption of news, helping citizens to distinguish between falsification and truth<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Shushan Doydoyan suggested using proactive and reactive directions, one in the hands of the state, the other in the hands of the citizen.\u00a0These are the main tools against misinformation, through which the citizen receives information from the state on the basis of a primary source of information, thus fighting against the evil called misinformation.\u00a0As an electronic, fast and reliable tool, the speaker brought the example of the official website e-request.am.<\/p>\n

Ms.\u00a0Anush Aslanyan,\u00a0President of the \u201cEqual Rights, Equal Opportunities\u201d\u00a0NGO for people with disabilities<\/strong>, noted that she was in favor of tough measures related to freedom of speech and dissemination of misinformation.\u00a0There is hate speech today that people confuse with freedom of speech.<\/p>\n

Ms. Syuzanna Soghomonyan,\u00a0the program expert at the Armenian Lawyers\u2019 Association<\/strong>, presented in her report the structure of the RA justice sector, which also included the e-justice.\u00a0She noted that within the framework of the 5th OGP Plan, the commitments in the field of justice are connected with the introduction of e-justice tools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2019-2023 Strategy\u00a0of\u00a0Judicial and Legal Reforms\u00a0of the Republic of Armenia. and the deriving Action Plan, sets out the new procedure and criteria for inspecting the conduct of judges, members of the Constitutional Court and the SJC, the establishment of a professional commission on constitutional reform, the adoption of a law on confiscation of property of Illicit origin, the establishment of an anti-corruption commission. At the same time special importance was attached to the e-Justice,\u201d<\/em> she said.<\/p>\n

In terms of international experience, the speaker noted that more than half of the commitments are focused on judicial reform, which makes governance more accessible.<\/p>\n

Expert Ms Mariam Zadoyan\u00a0<\/strong>mentioned during the discussion that the vulnerable groups conditioned by COVID-19 become more vulnerable, therefore the solutions should be more people-centered, and need-centered.<\/p>\n

“OGP has developed mechanisms – open response and open recovery.\u00a0The collection of proposals related to the epidemic within the OGP is carried out on the basis of the following pillars:\u00a0Data collection, access to justice, open and accountable justice, capacity and financing, cooperation and partnership<\/em>,” she said.<\/p>\n

Mariam Zadoyan also referred to e-justice, under which she understands a system that allows organizing document circulation, long-distance court hearings, statistics.<\/p>\n

“There are precedents of holding long-distance sittings in Armenia.\u00a0As for the statistics, the speaker stated that there are shortcomings; the data is not sufficiently open and it is not possible to perform certain operations with them.\u00a0Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms are not common in Armenia.\u00a0In this regard, mediators will be trained.<\/em><\/p>\n

And the third is to ensure\u00a0the well-being\u00a0of the actors in the field of justice<\/em>,” Ms Zadoyan noted.<\/p>\n

The participants of the discussion reached agreements on further work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 22 December, an online discussion in the format of a public-private dialogue on the development of the Open Government\u00a0Partnership (OGP) National Action Plan 5 on the\u00a0Good Governance and Justice Sector sector\u00a0was held. The event was organized in the framework of the \u201cCo-creation Support for the 2020-2022 OGP National Action Plan\u201d project implemented by a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/armla.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/armla.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/armla.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armla.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armla.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6764"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/armla.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6766,"href":"https:\/\/armla.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6764\/revisions\/6766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armla.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/armla.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armla.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armla.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}