Armenia: New study on public participation platforms and opportunities

In early February 2022, Transparency International Anticorruption Center published a report “Public Participation Platforms and Opportunities in Armenia”, conducted in the framework of the EU-funded “Participatory Democracy in Action” project.

The main purpose of the study was to review the existing dialogue and participation channels: how effective they are, what their strengths and weaknesses are, whether they incorporate a rights-based approach. The study covers the legal and institutional framework and practical opportunities for public participation in Armenia, including the tools for public participation in policy development, implementation and monitoring, the activities of consultative bodies, participation at the community level, and participation opportunities for vulnerable groups.

The report specifically investigates the available participation tools and mechanisms in Armenia, including the electronic platform for publishing legal drafts (e-draft.am), public hearings and discussions, public petitions, as well as activities of consultative bodies. These tools and mechanisms provide any person with an opportunity to provide an opinion and suggestions in the process of decision-making; at the same time, they have various levels of functionality and a considerable room for improvement. Public participation opportunities have generally improved in recent years, except in 2020, when a setback was noted in the enforcement of participation requirements and the use of existing platforms in the decision-making process.

The report presents findings related to the access to information and participation opportunities in Armenia as provided in legislation and implemented in practice. The main conclusions of the report include the following:

• The legal regulations and existing platforms for access to information generally create favourable conditions for the exercise of this right. However, there are a number of problems in practice, related to delayed and incomplete answers to information inquiries, lack of pro-active publication of information by public administration and local self-government bodies as required by legislation, as well as the poor quality of the published information and the lack of open data format.
• The main legal gaps in participation include the lack of mandatory public discussion of parliament-initiated legal drafts and lack of legal regulations enforcing participation in the stages of policy implementation and monitoring.
• The lack of effective communication and insufficient human capacities in public administration are noted among the main obstacles to the participatory processes. On the other hand, CSOs also lack sufficient skills and knowledge for ensuring effective public participation, while the public in general has limited awareness on participation channels and low level of motivation to participate in decision making. Obstacles to participation on community level include a lack of political will for participatory governance, gaps in transparency and accountability of local self-government bodies, weaknesses of community councils, as well as low level of public awareness and motivation to participate. Existence of local CSOs usually positively impacts the level and quality of participation in communities.
• The major contributing factors for effective participation are personal attitude of officials, good image of a CSO and application of evidence-based approach, joint interest in utilization of CSOs’ resources and expertise, as well as specific policy areas and the political will for engagement.
• As to the legal and practical opportunities for the participation of vulnerable groups, there is a certain legal framework providing guarantees for non-discrimination and equality for disadvantaged groups. This is, however, not sufficient for enforcing non-discrimination. On the practical side, there are a number of issues starting from the lack of physical and information accessibility for people with disabilities to the limited communication skills of officials for interaction with vulnerable groups. While state and local authorities are generally open to the participation of vulnerable groups, they rarely take special efforts to engage these groups unless the discussed policy or draft directly affects the particular group.

The main recommendations of the report include the following:

1. Publish complete and regularly updated information on official websites and establish oversight mechanisms to monitor the processes of publishing information and providing responses to inquiries, including applying effective sanctions in case of non-compliance.
2. Build the capacities of both state agencies and CSOs to establish effective dialogue and make use of available platforms and opportunities and implement awareness-raising activities for general population.
3. Appoint an employee or team responsible for public consultations in state agencies to organise a more effective participatory process.
4. Ensure mandatory public consultation of draft laws initiated by the parliament within a reasonable timeframe, considering e-draft.am platform for this purpose.
5. Envisage relevant legal regulations to enforce engagement of civil society in the implementation and monitoring of policies and strategies, as well as allocation of necessary financial resources.
6. Ensure full utilisation and functioning of existing participation tools and platforms (including unified electronic platform for legal drafts, petition platform, public hearings and discussions, consultative bodies, local level participation tools), in particular through implementing relevant legal provisions, incorporating suggestions as possible, ensuring transparency of activities and raising public awareness.
7. Make efforts to engage representatives of vulnerable groups not only in the discussion of drafts that directly concern them, but also any issue of public interest, providing physical and information accessibility and building relevant capacities of state officials.

The right to public participation in decision making is an essential component of an enabling environment for civil society, and as such, one that the CSO Meter monitors. Most of the findings and recommendations of the new study are in line with the CSO Meter Armenia 2019 report, and were fed into the CSO Meter research implemented in 2021.