

“Amulsar project lacks a cost-benefit analysis”, Fidanka Bacheva-McGrath, strategic area leader at CEE Bankwatch Network, noted this on 28 June at the presentation of the report entitled "Amulsar: Human Rights Violations and Environmental Negligence in the Search for Gold". The meeting was organized by the International Federation for Human Rights, CEE Bankwatch Network and the Civil Society Institute and EcoLur Informational NGO.
Fidanka Bacheva-McGrath outlined, “One report by "Lydian" mentioned the payment of 50 million dollars in taxes to the Republic of Armenia as a result of the implementation of the Amulsar project. However, there is no analysis of costs or damage to the environment and health, tourism and agricultural sectors. There must be a balance of both harms and benefits when making decisions within this project. Whose side will RA government take? To those who will receive profit or to those who will later bear the brunt of the damage? In our opinion, RA government did not pay sufficient attention to fundamental human rights and did not take sufficient steps to protect these rights in accordance with its own ratified international obligations," she said.
Fidanka Bacheva-McGrath pointed out that Armenia has signed a number of international conventions, under which it is obliged to respect the legal and political rights of its citizens, freedom of speech, organization and freedom of assembly.
"These issues were presented to the UN structures by RA political society. Certain specific proposals and demands were presented to the Armenian government by those structures. It is very important that Armenia shows that it protects human rights in Amulsar project. We propose to revoke the permits issued for Amulsar project, make new assessments, and then organize consultations with the people who will be affected by this project," she said.
Inga Zarafyan, President of "EcoLur" Informational NGO, mentioned that the residents of the Jermuk consolidated community affected by Amulsar project started to protect their rights from the early stages of the project, but after Velvet revolution of 2018, they started to take more serious actions.
"The roads leading to Amulsar were closed for about 3 years after 2018. A new round of pressures and trials began, which were studied and presented in this report," she said.
FIDH member, Director of “Civil Society Institute” NGO Artak Kirakosyan noted, “At the 2019 Taiwan Congress, I presented the Amulsar issue. It was decided to take Armenia and the case of Amulsar as a case-study, as a collective problem of various types of violations, which would be instructive for other countries. This is actually why the 2019 FIDH delegation visited Armenia. At that time, it seemed to us that we could have a constructive dialogue with the authorities and fix the problems. However, we had no further cooperation with the authorities. Then works on the report launched," he said.
Anna Shahnazaryan, member of Armenian Environmental Front initiative, outlined that that the reports on Amulsar project lack scientifically substantiated facts, “The $50 million annual tax revenue expected from Amulsar project is a myth. In 2019, RA government adopted a tax "reform" law, turning the progressive tax system into a regressive one. In other words, there was a transition to flat taxation, and RA has been deprived of 37 billion annual tax revenues from 2020 as a result of flat taxation and due to the adoption of that law. That 30 billion is more than $50 million expected annual revenue from Amulsar project. Our state had a progressive tax system without Amulsar program, as a result of the amendment in the income tax rate, we lose about 90 million USD in budget revenues annually."
Karen Manvelyan, Director of Armenian branch of World Wildlife Fund (WWF-Armenia), addressed the issue of the inclusion of the affected areas of Amulsar project in Emerald network. According to him, it will be possible to settle the issue with the adoption of the law "On Amendments to e RA Law on Specially Protected Areas of Nature" and related laws. “One of the challenges was how to preserve biodiversity outside of protected areas. Our laws do not have such provisions.
After a series of meetings with the relevant authorities of the Ministry, there will be an amendment to the Law on Specially Protected Areas of Nature, where important biodiversity areas will be included and they will have management schemes. How the conservation of the Emerald lands is carried out, no one knows. Whether this law will cover that part, as well as whether it will cover community and environmental gaps... We will have the legal base, the law will be adopted in the near future, and then it will be easier to substantiate and enforce management," he said.
Levon Galstyan, a geologist and member of "Armenian Environmental Front" initiative, noted that mining activities in Armenia are developing by ignoring people's rights. "There are two important factors that should be considered in the area where you want to open a mine. Does it allow for its safe operation and do the locals agree to change their way of life? In this project, both of these factors have been neglected.
Second, having the almost 100 percent resistance of the largest resort town, they tried to bypass the rights of these people with the cooperation of the government. They found 3-4 villages that have 200-400 inhabitants, where it is very easy to find ten people in those villages, who are able to shift the opinion of the village into an opinion that supports mining. Two important facts have been neglected for years," he said.
Levon Galstyan also referred to the political and judicial prosecutions against residents fighting against Amulsar project. "The residents of Jermuk were not psychologically ready for this. They were involved in various administrative and criminal cases, intercommunal conflicts were created. Meanwhile, the most important point of the financial banks' standards was that the projects financed by them should not lead to inter-community conflict," he emphasized.
Oleg Dulgarian, President of "Center for Community Integration and Support" NGO, referred to the cases of violation of the rights of people and communities in Armenia in the last few years. According to him, protests by community residents against mining activities, attempts to fail public hearings are the only and most effective mechanism for the community to protect their own rights.
"The legal framework does not allow fighting with other mechanisms. And it seems that everything is being done to give that opportunity as well. The law "On Amendments and Supplements to RA Mining Code" is worrisome, regarding which a large part of the civil society has deep doubts that it was designed for Amulsar, otherwise the proposals to enter into a dialogue with the political society would not have gone unanswered. A few days ago, RA President signed that document and said on the air of the Public Television that he does not see anything unconstitutional in that law.
It is very important to have the support of international partners in the evaluation process. It seems that we have come to the point where the voice of political society is not heard in order to achieve a specific goal," he said.
Referring to the amendments implemented in "Mining Code", Director of "Forests of Armenia" NGO, Lawyer Nazeli Vardanyan noted, "They gave a definition that if we are fighting against companies or for a healthy environment, it means that we are fighting against the state, because disobedience has been described as a fight against state programs and state policies. People who want to live in a clean environment become people who have committed a state crime, and the pressure on these people becomes even greater."
The participants of the discussion also referred to the risks of the development strategy of the mining sector of Armenia currently being in the process of development. "In the strategy, it was recommended that RA government establish mechanisms for what legal consequences should be borne by those people and communities who failed the public hearings related to mining. An attempt is being made to neutralize the rights of the community to protect its own rights. Everything is done with the benefit of mining in mind. It is very important that the international community and organizations support the political society of Armenia in their expressed positions, calls, and demands," Oleg Dulgarian said.
Nazeli Vardanyan mentioned that the strategy stems from the interests of business. "For the sake of business, they are making amendments, they want to deprive communities of land ownership and participation in public hearings. If land and water use permits are issued together with the mining permit, it turns out that the number of hearings decreases and the public participation reduced too. Fundamental rights are being violated here, and we have gone several steps back from the legislative point of view," she said.
Artur Grigoryan, President of "Ecological Law" NGO, presented several more dangerous points of the strategy. "It is proposed to open the specially protected area for mining, along with granting the right of soil management, the right to the land should also be granted. The concept is that if the company has to go through the process of acquiring the land, then after the adoption of this strategy, the legal framework should be amended, as a result of which the state should now take this responsibility and solve these issues.
...There is no word on the new reality of climate change. If the World Bank finances a project, climate policy should find a place in the strategic document financed by it," he said.
Artur Grigoryan mentioned that maybe there are certain mechanisms to influence the strategy development process through the World Bank policy. "If we are not able to make amendment in the draft strategy by contacting the organization that develops it, then maybe we can try to change something by influencing the reputation of the funding organization," he said.
July 11, 2022 at 17:37