PARTNERSHIP FOR OPEN SOCIETY PROGRAM

The Partnership for Open Society (POS) is an operational program of OSIAF-Armenia aimed at developing democratic institutions in Armenia and promoting open society values, i.e. rule of law, independent professional media, acknowledgement and effective mechanisms of protection of human rights, including rights of minority groups and exercise of civil liberties. The Partnership, a coalition of sixty non-governmental organizations, was initiated by an active group of civil society actors to empower the civil society to deal with a wide range of issues and to timely respond to all the challenges and developments in the social and political realm of the country.  This is mainly achieved by empowering the civil society through training programs, policy strengthening initiatives in various fields and lobbying/advocacy activities.

In 2006, the Partnership for Open Society went beyond its traditional role of raising public awareness on important political, social and economic issues, and developing alternative policy suggestions.  The main developments that shaped the Partnership’s activities last year were changes necessitated by the amended Constitution in November 2005, especially in the field of media regulation; the MCA Compact and the ENP Action Plan signed in March and November 2006 respectively; and the upcoming parliamentary elections in May 2007.

With the signing of MCA and the European Neighborhood Action Plan, the Partnership’s activities the past year were mainly geared towards developing and carrying out MCA implementation monitoring projects, and securing civil society presence as an active participant in suggesting ideas and projects for the ENP Action Plan implementation and monitoring ENP implementation in 2007. 

Among the highlights of the Partnership’s lobbying activities in the previous year, were its efforts geared against the proposed law on Lobbying and the draft law on TV and Radio, as well as against the hasty passage of the Government Plan on Broadcast Digitalization.  The Partnership managed to mobilize the civil society and to oppose the adoption of the law on Lobbying, which in fact severely limited the civil society’s capacity for advocacy, and thus averted the government’s control over civil society’s advocacy efforts.

Active media organizations, representing the Partnership, also succeeded in lobbying against the draft law on making amendments to the Law on TV and Radio.  While changes in the Law are necessary in view of the amended Constitution, the proposed changes in the draft law were considered undemocratic and were strongly opposed to by the media community and the Partnership.  Partnership members were received by high-level officials to present their ideas on the draft law and were promised to be involved in the process of developing a new draft law. 

The POS activities also brought to a halt the Government’s intention to pass its Plan on Broadcast Digitalization.  The Partnership brought it to the attention of international organizations.  Jointly with the OSCE, the Partnership presented the Plan to the OSCE Representative on Freedom of Media for expertise and co-organized a public discussion of the event with the participation of the international expert that had provided her expertise on the Plan.  As a result, the Plan, which was meant to be speedily passed by the Government, is now back with the Ministry of Transport and Communication, and will be further worked on in view of the recommendations of the civil society and the international expert.

As the year before, this past year, too, the POS activities embraced a wide range of issues.  To name a few, the Partnership organized open discussions on the Role of NGOs in MCA Implementation, Current Policies on National Minorities, Human Rights Annual Report, PRSP Implementation, the Status of Yerevan City, Human Rights and the Army, as well as a meeting between the civil society and the donor community, which provided a unique opportunity to have an open exchange of ideas between the donor organizations and the civil society about election assistance programs.

In 2007, due to the upcoming parliamentary elections, to be followed by presidential elections the following year, and while the Partnership will continue keeping all social and political developments happening in the country in its focus and will react accordingly, its main focus area will be elections and monitoring.

The Partnership for Open Society is open to any organization that adheres to its principles.  More information about the Partnership for Open Society and its activities is available on the Partnership’s web-site at www.partnership.am.