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On February 6, the RA NA Factions met with the experts of the CoE Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR being in Armenia with an expert mission to discuss the draft law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations. The delegation comprises of CoE Venice Commission Members Jan Velaers (Belgium) and Jasna Omejec (Croatia), the OSCE/ODIHR expert Zoila Combalia (Spain), the lawyer of the Venice Commission Secretariat Grigory Dikov and the Deputy Head of CoE Office Loreta Vioiu.

The deputies Edmon Marukyan, Ararat Mirzoyan and Aram Sargsyan from the RA NA Way Out Faction met with the CoE Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR experts.

Underlining the lasting, effective cooperation with the Venice Commission, Edmon Marukyan expressed conviction that the experts’ participation and recommendations would be favourable for the adoption of such important draft law.

“You are in a historic country, and its people were the first to adopt Christianity as a state religion. The Armenian people in this region survived also due to the nation preserving activities of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church. Naturally, the opinion and role of the church will be great in the discussion and the adoption of this draft law,” Aram Sargsyan said.

The deputies of the RA NA Way Out Faction have noted that within the framework of the debate of the draft law meetings are envisaged, after which the Faction will present its position on the bill.

The next meeting of the CoE Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR experts was with the representatives of the RA NA Tsarukyan Faction the RA NA Vice President Mikayel Melkumyan, MPs Naira Zohrabyan, Tigran Urikhanyan and Gevorg Petrosyan. Mikayel Melkumyan highlighted the discussions in such formats. Naira Zohrabyan noted that in her articles she repeatedly touched upon the problems of the religious organizations, underscoring that the draft law should be seriously examined. In Gevorg Petrosyan’s word, the teenagers’ involvement should be excluded in the activities of the religious organizations.

The Head of the RA NA RPA Faction Vahram Baghdasaryan, the members of the Faction Hrayr Tovmasyan, Armen Ashotyan, Koryun nahapetyan, Araik Hovhannisyan and Rustam Makhmudyan also met with the CoE Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR experts. The Head of the RPA Faction thanked the European colleagues for effective cooperation.

The CoE Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR representatives expressed their satisfaction with the debates on the law and the joint work and addressed their questions to the members of the faction.

Hrayr Tovmasyan thoroughly answered the experts’ questions, touching upon some most important provisions of the draft law. The questions related to the registration of the religious organizations, the rights and protection of human rights.

Touching upon some disputable provisions of the draft law, Armen Ashotyan emphasized the necessity of their specification. “We want to ensure the constitutional status of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the protection of the national religious minorities’ rights, create such an institute of protection of human rights, where under the freedom of conscience organizations of other character won’t work,” Armen Ashotyan said.

Summing up the results of the meeting with the representatives of the parliamentary factions, the  representative of the CoE Venice Commission Secretariat Grigory Dikov in response to the question of the RA NA Department of Public Relations said: “The meetings were rather fruitful. The cooperation of the Venice Commission with the authorities of the Republic of Armenia has always been constructive. I hope that during the visit we’ll have sufficient information to come to a balanced conclusion where we’ll take into consideration the European standards and at the same time, the unique status of Armenia.”