OSCE Office in Yerevan supports award ceremony to mark International Anti-Corruption Day

On the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day on 9 December 2015, the OSCE Office in Yerevan in co-operation with partners supported an annual award ceremony recognizing media, business community and civic activists for their efforts in the fight against corruption and in promoting the rule of law, access to justice and accountability. Those honoured were distinguished for their successes in using the legal system to hold business and corporate actors accountable to employees and consumers.

The ceremony was organized by the Armenian Young Lawyers Association and the Civil Society Organizations’ Anti-Corruption Coalition, and supported by the OSCE Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Delegation of the European Union.

“The OSCE Office in Yerevan attaches great importance to implementing anti-corruption reforms aimed at promoting and strengthening good governance practices in Armenia,” said Head of the OSCE Office, Andrey Sorokin. “We hope that through joint efforts of the state, civil society and international community, tangible results in reducing corruption will be achieved.”

A former employee of a local chemical company, Haykanush Tutunjyan, was recognized as the “Citizen of the Year” for her successful efforts to win payment of back wages with interest, in a court case brought with the support of Young Lawyers Association.

A student, Ani Samsonyan, was awarded the “Young Citizen of the Year” prize for her social media video which highlighted the problem of corruption..

The media outlet CivilNet was recognized for actively reporting on state budget expenditures and reporting about corruption risks in its online programme “Out of Your Pocket”.

The NGONGO
non-governmental organization Civic Initiative for the Protection of Rights of Persons Recognized as Temporarily Disabledreceived an award for having successfully protected the rights of women to access antenatal care and maternity leave.

The Green Beanfood service company and Nelly Babayan, a journalist with the Aravot daily, were recognized for their efforts to reveal corruption risks and obstacles in doing business.

Presenting the awards were Sorokin; Deputy Minister of Justice, Suren Krmoyan;UK Ambassador to Armenia,Judith Margaret Farnworth; Deputy Head of the Co-operation Section at the European Union Delegation to Armenia, Jose-Maria Medina-Navarro;and Co-ordinator of the Civil Society Organization’s Anti-Corruption Coalition and President of the Armenian Young Lawyers Association, Karen Zadoyan.