Assessment of Legislation
2013-05-29 GOVERNMENTAL DECISION “ON ADOPTION OF THE PROCEDURE OF ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF PUBLIC COUNCIL ADJACENT TO THE MINSTER OF NATURE PROTECTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA”
The current state of affairs and the regulatory needs.
The creation of efficient mechanism to combine interests of various stakeholders involved in the lawmaking and law enforcement practice of environmental protection and natural resource management is one of the key tasks of the relevant field in the Republic of Armenia. Those mechanisms with the implication of diverse procedures give an opportunity to evaluate the challenges of prospective legal regulations and potential ways of their solution. The current system of legislation comprises some procedures of public participation in lawmaking (e.g. RA Law “On environmental impact expertise”, RA Governmental Decision “On adoption of the procedure of organization and implementation of discussions on drafts of normative legal acts” ), which, however, have a significant lack of mechanism of direct involvement of public and scientific institutions in the elaboration of law drafts.
Republic of Armenia is a party to the Aarhus Convention “On access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters” since 2001 and the articles 7 and 8 of the Convention oblige the parties to establish legally-binding procedures for the involvement of the public in the development of law drafts as well as other legal acts adopting policy documents.
Even the articles 4, 5 and 6 of the Aarhus Convention have found implementation to some extent in the legal system of Armenia there is still a gap in the meaning of articles 7, 8 and the purposed draft of Governmental Decision is designed to fill it appropriately.
Having in regard the aforementioned the draft of Governmental Decision “On adoption of the procedure of establishment and operation of public council adjacent to the Minster of nature protection of the Republic of Armenia” has been developed by ELRC. Text is available in Armenian here.
The features of purposed regulation.
The purposed draft is designed for the participation of the public and scientific institutions in the elaboration of law drafts and drafts of other legal acts adopting plans, programs and policies to create;
• Highly definite mechanisms, forms and timeframes,
• Dimensions to outline the scope and the legal pipes of participation,
• Mechanisms to depict and integrate outcomes in the final decisions.
Keeping us a streamline the mentioned dimensions the draft aims to establish public-scientific Council adjacent to the Minister of nature protection. The Council is envisaged to;
1. Elaborate and discuss the law drafts and drafts of other legal acts adopting plans, programs and policies in the field and concerning the environmental protection.
2. To develop suggestions and remarks on the drafts of legal acts elaborated by other public authorities and submitted to the Ministry of nature protection for opinion and impact assessment of legal regulation.
According to the described differentiation is structured the entire system of the purposed drafts;
• General provisions; Comprises provisions on the subject of regulation, the purpose and general principals of the Council’s operation,
• The procedure of Council’s establishment;
The second bulk of the draft is dedicated to the Council’s establishment under the following principals; a) The equal leeway for scientific institutions and non-governmental organizations to be involved, b) Exclusion of the Ministry of nature protection from the process of election of non-governmental organizations and complete prospect for self-organization, c) Optimal timeframes and basis for reelection of the Council’s members,
• The procedure of Council’s operation; The content of the third pillar of the draft is as follows;
1. The procedure of inviting the sessions by the initiative of the members of the Council and the Ministry of nature protection with reference to the minimum number of the meetings to be held within a year,
2. The measurable, objective means of notification on the date and the agenda of the session.
3. Flexible mechanisms of involvement of various stakeholders in the activities of the Council via introduction of the institute of observer,
4. The procedure of adopting the Council’s decisions by consensus and mechanisms of providing information to the members and public on the progress made to implement the conclusions of the Council,
5. The procedure of disseminating information on the activities of the Council and the scope of the information to be provided. The appendix of the Draft includes provisions which regulate the collection of the Council’s members remarks and suggestions on the drafts elaborated by other public authorities and submitted to the opinion of the Ministry of nature protection.
The aforementioned procedure relies on two basic principals- 1. the Submission of the Council’s member’s remarks and suggestions upon necessity, 2. the strict schedule of submitting remarks and suggestions.
The institutions involved in the development of the Draft
The draft has been elaborated by the Environmental Law Research Center of Yerevan State University, Faculty of Law.
The anticipated outcome
It is envisaged to increase the quality and the level of scientific substantiation of the law drafts and the drafts of other legal acts adopting policies, programs and plans in the field of environmental protection through the approval of this Governmental Decision. Additionally, the Council can serve as a unique tool to uncover the public opinion on the specific policy documents and law drafts submitted to the Ministry of nature protection. The direct involvement of the public and the scientific institutions is another key component of the draft which may ensure the necessary social support of the future policy documents and law drafts
Download in Armenian;
Draft
Substantiation
Reference
YSU NEWS
ON THE EVE OF THE 99TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Today, the candle lighting in memory of the 1.5 million innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide was organized in the foyer of YSU main building.
YSU IS A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE CSTO UNIVERSITY LEAGUE
25 higher educational institutions founded in Yekaterinburg the University League of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
ENVIRONMENTALISTS WERE UNITED AGAIN
April 22 is The Earth Day, so the environmentalists once again raised the environmental issues.
MEMORIES OF THE GENOCIDE SURVIVOR
The presentation of the book “If we remain silent, the stones would cry out” was held at YSU today. It is based on the memories of the Genocide survivor Hrachya Gevorgyan.
YSU STUDENTS PARTICIPATED IN THE INTERNATIONAL YOUTH FORUM
On April 6-12 YSU students participated in the International Youth Forum “Lomonosov 2014”.
