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On October 17 the RA NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs jointly organized parliamentary hearings by the USAID-funded Support Program to the Armenian National Assembly (SANAP) and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Yerevan Office on the theme “Parliamentary Ethics: The MP’s Behavior Rules.”

The RA NA Vice President Hermine Naghdalyan, deputies, representatives of the RA state bodies, local and international organizations, civil society and experts were taking part in the hearings.

The Committee Chairman Davit Harutyunyan has informed the attendees that during its activity the NA Committee on Ethics has received 21 applications, and 16 of them have been refused, all the materials are posted on the NA website and are accessible for the public. Davit Harutyunyan has introduced the functions and problems of the Committee and noticed that problems have been emerged, which will be solved. He expressed hope that the hearings would help to improve the legislation of the sphere.

Rick Stapenhurst, a consultant/advisor to the governance/parliamentary program and a Professor of Practice at McGill University’s Institute for the Study of International Development of Canada delivered a speech “The International Standards in the Sphere Parliamentary Ethics and the General Tendencies of Development.” He has noticed that during the last decades in the whole world the trust towards the parliament decreases, except Sweden and Denmark. The reasons are numerous: lack of democracy, change of value systems, increase of education, etc, thus system changes are necessary to be made, which will control the MPs’ behavior and will boost the rise of the trust towards parliaments. According to the expert, it is necessary to have a Behavior Code, where the MP’s behavior rules are affirmed and in case of their violation the applying punitive measures, which in different countries are very diverse.

John Lyon, the British expert on Parliamentary Ethics delivered a report “The Main Principles of the Regulation: Some Issues of the Practical Use of the Rules.” Sharing his experience and knowledge during his activity he has said that in Great Britain, for example, the Behavior Code is changed every 4-5 years. Its goal is to have a strong, reliable parliament, raise the trust of the public towards the parliament. It was noted that 6-7 countries have officially approved Behavior Codes. The expert has noted that in the Commission for Standards in Great Britain the cases, when the MP’s behavior negatively reflects on the prestige of the parliament become a matter of examination.

Armen Khudaverdyan, the member of the Ethics Commission of the RA High Ranking Officials delivered a speech on the theme “The Declaration of the Property and Incomes: the Practice and the Problems.”

An exchange of thoughts was conducted, and the participants presented their recommendations and positions through their speeches and questions.

Summing up the hearings Davit Harutyunyan noted that the hearings went on in the atmosphere of concerned and effective debates, recommendations were sounded, which would promote the improvement of the legislative sphere.