EcoLur
The vote on draft law "On Making Amendments To RA Law "On Freedom of Information" was postponed for two months by the suggestion of RA Environment Deputy Minister Irina Ghaplanyan.
The discussion of the draft law took place on June 12 at the sitting of RA NA Standing Committee on Territorial Administration, Local Self-Government, Agriculture and Nature Protection.
Presenting the draft law, Irina Ghaplanyan said, "The draft limits the disclosure of information on habitats or growing sites of red-listed species. The adoption of this draft law stems from RA Government's 2019- program of activities for 2023, the regulations of the Aarhus Convention, as well as the roadmap for the implementation of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement between Armenia and the EU.”
RA NA Deputy Hrant Ayvazyan said that the amendment to the draft law may create an opportunity not to provide information the red-listed species, whereas a mine or HPP may be exploited in the habitats or growing sites of those species.
RA NA Deputy Sisak Gabrielyan mentioned, "We have a problem with Amulsar, and many people say that there are rare species there. Tomorrow, if there is an attempt to develop the mine in another area, for example, for a citizen, organization, environmental activists, it will be interesting to see if there is a rare animal or plant in that area that could be endangered by developing the same mine, the discretionary authorization is vested on the ministry and the ministry may simply not provide it, or this information will be “hidden”, and the operation of the mine will ultimately harm these rare animals and plants more than providing that information. ” RA NA Deputy Nikolay Baghdasaryan noted that the text of the draft law does not reflect the requirement of the Aarhus Convention.
Varazdat Karapetyan, Chairman of RA NA Standing Committee on Territorial Administration, Local Self-Government, Agriculture and Nature Protection, said. "The subcommittee set up in our committee, headed by Mrs. Mary Galstyan, has worked on a new draft law on environmental information. We propose to temporarily postpone the adoption of this draft.”
Listening to the members of the committee, Irina Ghaplamyan suggested postponing the voting of the draft law for 2 months.
June 12, 2020 at 15:41