Freedom of Information Center of Armenia.

Three featured speakers facilitated the discussion: Karen Zadoyan, Leader of Young Lawyers Association; Vrezh Gasparyan, Adviser to the Head of the Staff of the National Assembly; and Dr. Shushan Doydoyan, President of the Freedom of Information Center of Armenia and professor of the Journalism Department at Yerevan State University. The speakers, all of whom participated in U.S. Government sponsored study through the International Visitor Leadership Program, shared their knowledge and experience gained in the U.S. in the fields of civil society, election monitoring, and characteristics of law abiding states. Karen Robblee, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Embassy, welcomed the participants.

The discussion started with Karen Zadoyan's presentation on civil society's present and future perspectives in Armenia. He defined civil society, talked about its shortcomings in Armenia, and out-lined ways to develop civil society. He also stressed the importance of non-governmental (NGOs) in democratic society. According to Mr. Zadoyan, there are 4,522 registered NGOs in Armenia.organizations (NGOs) in democratic society.

Dr. Doydoyan's presentation touched on the practical aspects of civil society. She introduced the Freedom of Information NGO whose main task is to defend the people's constitutional right to have access to information. She talked about success stories and noted that her NGO won 75% of 44 court cases concerning the protection of ordinary people's rights. Among other cases, Shushan mentioned the case when the "Asparez" Press Club applied for copies of Gyumri municipality's decisions and received the ridiculous answer, "You can find the list of decisions on our web page, which is under the construction." Each year, on 28 September, International Freedom of Information Day, the NGO organizes an Annual Award Ceremony and hands a golden key as positive award to the state institution with the best sys-tem of providing information, as well as a padlock (negative award) to the state institution which does the worst job fulfilling its obligations in FOI field. The speaker also encouraged students to protect their right to be informed.
 

Vrezh Gasparyan concentrated his speech on the law abiding state and the protection of human rights. He valued the rule of law, appreciated the U.S. Declaration of Independence and opined, "The American Founding Fathers put great love and respect for American statehood in the Declaration." The speaker concluded, "In Armenia people have rights but can't protect their rights. NGOs are trying to protect people's rights as pro-vided by local legislation and help create an environment where officials will feel obliged to pro-vide information."

The question and answer period focused on the activities of NGOs. A student mentioned cases when NGOs are founded just to meet the founder's personal needs. Another student ex-pressed doubt about the real purpose of NGOs. He said "local NGOs are mostly funded by foreign countries and protect the interests of those countries/ This could lead to conflict with Armenian national security interests." Students also touched upon the transparency of financial sources and budgets of non-governmental organizations.