Democracy is an Endemic Value for Us, Says Pashinyan to Civil Society Representatives

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with representatives of civil society organizations, who represented dozens of NGO's. The meeting was held within the framework of the "Promotion and Protection of Human Rights" program.

“I consider democracy to be an endemic value for us,” Pashinyan stated. Also attending the meeting were UN Permanent Coordinator in Armenia Shombi Sharp and the Head of the Cooperation Section of the EU Delegation to Armenia Gonzalo Serrano, both of whom delivered welcoming remarks.

Welcoming the attendees, the Prime Minister emphasized the importance of holding such meetings. “For a long time, we have been searching for the right format to communicate with representatives of civil society, because communication in governmental formats is not always effective, and I am glad that we are making this kind of attempt. I believe an important observation was made that sometimes we try to assess what democracy is. It is sometimes noted that democracy also has the property that under its circumstances, those who previously silenced others now have even more opportunities to silence others. This is perhaps the most important dilemma that exists in democratic countries or, at least, in democratic countries like Armenia, which still have the need to clarify and refine fundamental concepts.

In particular, not always, but sometimes, it may turn out that clarification is needed on what human rights mean, sometimes it may be necessary to clarify who is a person that can enjoy rights, and at times it becomes necessary to clarify whether some are more or less human, and so on. But from this, I think we should not be surprised, nor should we be offended. This means that democracy, particularly in the Republic of Armenia, still has a long way to go, or perhaps not such a long way, in order to have at least a public consensus at the level of basic concepts. One thing is clear: our government is dedicated to democratic values. I have repeatedly stated that I consider democracy to be an endemic value for us, not imported from any country or territory. And I believe this because I think that the presence of many people in the room and my own activities have proven that democracy is ultimately a familiar phenomenon for us, but perhaps from time to time, we need to pause and, as they say, reconcile our specific, practical formulations about democracy. I believe that meetings like this are very good opportunities to discuss these issues,” Pashinyan noted.

The Prime Minister emphasized the role of civil society in the development and strengthening of democracy in the country and noted that the government has involved civil society representatives in anti-corruption efforts and judicial reforms. Following this, the government leader answered a number of questions from civil society representatives and listened to their observations and proposals. In particular, issues related to the protection of human rights, raising public oversight in that direction, fighting against corruption, implementing reforms in the judicial sector, police, and the public administration system were discussed, as well as cooperation with international partners in this regard.

The Prime Minister and civil society representatives exchanged views on the formats of organizing similar meetings in the future and emphasized that these would contribute to mutual cooperation to effectively implement reforms in various sectors.