News

The current situation of human rights in Armenia was discussed on Wednesday, October 10 at a press conference held in Golden Tulip Yerevan Hotel by Amalia Kostanyan, CRD/TI Armenia Chairwoman, Avetik Ishkhanyan, Chairman of Armenian Helsinki Committee and Artur Sakunts, Head of Vanadzor Branch of Helsinki Citizen's Assembly. The speakers expressed concern on decline of freedom of speech in the past five years and claimed lack of human rights protection in the country.

CRD/TI Armenia held a press conference on September 26, 2007, at 2 p.m. Yerevan time, to present Transparency International 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released that day in London by the famous global coalition against corruption. The 2007 CPI, which drew on 14 expert opinion surveys carried out by 12 independent organizations looked at perceptions of public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories, the greatest country coverage of any CPI to date. The key speaker, CRD/TI Armenia Chairwoman Amalia Kostanyan introduced CPI 2007 findings and reflected on current situation in Armenia particularly with regard to implementation of Anti-Corruption Strategy Program.

The United Nations launched on September 17 a new partnership between the World Bank and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to help developing nations to recover assets stolen by corrupt leaders and invest those funds in effective development programs.
According to the UN News Service the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, the Executive Director of the UNODC Antonio Maria Costa and World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick keynoted on the Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative at the UN headquarters in New York.

Being turned into an ecological zone of disaster, the city of Yerevan, especially its Center faces a state of emergency, requiring to immediately take appropriate measures. It was mentioned during a press conference held on August 31 by Public Ecological Coalition of 32 NGOs. The speakers were concerned that "since it was out of control, construction business served not as much the interests of the city as the financial interests of a group of tycoons."

On July 26 the Public Ecological Coalition organized an action against construction in the Opera garden area by the Arno Babajanyan Statue. More than 100 representatives of NGOs, parties, international organizations and media took part in the event. Besides speeches at the protest, the representatives of the action filled in soil into the foundation pit. All the participants took part in this action under the motto "a handful of soil into your pit" except the policemen observing the event.

Between July 17 and 18 CRD/TI Armenia Chairwoman Amalia Kostanyan participated in a workshop on Access to Information/Anti-Corruption. Held in Navacerrada, Spain, the workshop and the community brought together a broad spectrum of diverse NGOs with a few common links. In some way supported by OSI, they all promote public access to state held information, and they all have demonstrated a commitment to curbing corruption in the countries in which they work.

A World Bank report in the "Governance Matters" series was launched on July 10, 2007. It covers the updated and expanded set of Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) for 212 countries and territories and measures six dimensions of governance. The research methodology as well as the new data and analysis are contained in this report authored by D. Kaufmann, A. Kraay, and M. Mastruzzi. This is the sixth such report in a research series that started in the late nineties.

Held on July 8 in Aghveran, CRD/TI Armenia NGO chairwoman Amalia Kostanyan addressed "Specific rights: Good Governance and Transparency" during a 4-day seminar of comprehensive training in human rights. The seminar and practical study on "Human Rights, State and International Protection Mechanisms" brought together young leaders of Armenia's Aragatsotn, Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces to study various aspects of human rights and their application.

CRD/TI Armenia NGO chairwoman Amalia Kostanyan was among the guest speakers, who on July 2 met with the Birthright Armenia alumni to present possible ways of cooperation during "Next Step" Alumni Fund Potential Project Seminar. This event was one of the exciting activities of Birthright Armenia in the 10-day itinerary for the first official alumni reunion in Armenia running from June 29 to July 8, 2007.

On July 2 CRD/TI Armenia NGO together with its partners initiated an action of protest for the defense of Radio Liberty. Launched at the Square of Liberty, the protesters' demonstration with posters and with cloth-covered mouths symbolizing violation of freedom of press and right to information marched to the gates of the National Assembly.