On February 26, 2024, the Ministry of High-Technology Industry released a draft of a new law “On Public Information” as well as amendments and additions to related laws, for public discussion. According to the government, this law will serve as a basis of implementing open data policy, and in particular, enable public oversight over the performance of state and local self-government bodies. The new draft defines: the conditions and procedure for providing public information; the methods of ensuring access to public information and managing its usage; and how to regulate the collection, processing, use of information, establishment of databases and their management.

The Administrative Court of the RA satisfied the claim of the Transparency International Armenia NGO against the Staff of The National Assembly, recognizing not legitimate the latter’s activity to refuse the participation of the plaintiff’s representative as an observer at the interview stage of the competition for the vacancy of the member of the Corruption Prevention Commission. The TI claimed that its rights to seek and receive information, guaranteed by the RA Constitution, had been violated as its right to conduct observation mission over the contest had been restricted. Genya Petrosyan, Davit Gyurjyan, and Sergey Grigoryan, lawyers and attorneys at the Law Development and Protection Foundation represented the TI in the court.

With this letter we, Armenian civil society organizations and individuals, express our strong solidarity with you. We support you in your courage to stand against consistent and constant efforts by Georgia’s government to limit civic freedoms and fundamental human rights, including in the form of limiting the political participation of women, also by re-introducing the draft law on Transparency of Foreign Influence. In the minds of people who remember the history of the 20th century, the concept of foreign influence is strongly associated with advancing conspiracy theories used for violations of human rights and prosecution of the innocent, from which both our nations suffered significantly. We trust that at the times, when democracy is being attacked from so many angles, it is even more important to unite pro-democratic forces and build firewalls against attempts of weakening it in our region and beyond.

Although the Ministry of Internal Affairs expresses its willingness to understand the problems and to implement reforms, the recorded cases of continuous and systematic violence prove that the reforms are incomplete and ineffective. The principle of "Zero Tolerance for Violence", which should underpin any interaction between citizens and police officers, hasn't been established in the police. We, the undersigned civil society organisations, condemn the continued use of violence and torture by police officers. Given the current situation and the cases mentioned in the statement, the undersigned CSOs demand from the Prime Minister and the ruling party to implement real and radical reforms in the RA’s law enforcement system: the Police, investigative bodies, and the Prosecutor’s Office. 

The National Assembly of the RA is currently discussing the new draft law "On Enforcement Proceedings," which introduces new cornerstone regulations in the area of compulsory enforcement of judicial acts. Back in 2022, the LDPF conducted research in this area, revealing the existing problems both at the legislation and law enforcement levels and submitting targetted recommendations. The Foundation discussed the research report with the Ministry of Justice and the Compulsory Enforcement Service. Subsequently, in March 2023, the LDPF was invited to join the Ministry of Justice's working group revising the draft law on enforcement proceedings. The effective collaboration within the group enabled the LDPF to include several key recommendations in the draft law.

Recently, the Government of the Republic of Armenia has fully adopted the LDPF’s recommendations on improving the content of court statistics and has included them in the OGP-Armenia National Action Plan 2022-2024. The changes will allow the public and all interested parties to get a more comprehensive picture of the justice sector and take steps to address the problems outlined.