OSCE launches training programme for parliamentary staff in Armenia

YEREVAN, 2 June 2004 - A three-week training programme for parliamentary staff in Armenia, organized by the OSCE Office in Yerevan in co-operation with the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, began in Yerevan yesterday with the aim of facilitating a more effective, professional and transparent law-making process.

"This is the first time that such a comprehensive and intensive training programme for parliamentary staff has been organized by the OSCE in Armenia or indeed in the South Caucasus," Ambassador Vladimir Pryakhin, Head of the OSCE Office, said at the launching of the programme.

"This event is also unique as it is the first time that the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has co-operated with an OSCE field mission in the South Caucasus to support one of its member parliaments."

Mikael Kotanyan, Head of Staff of the Armenian Parliament, said that there was a need to enhance the professional capacity of parliamentary staff. "We appreciate the efforts of the OSCE Office to assist us in this process," he said.

The training programme, lasting from 1 June to 24 June, is being attended by specialist staff from the Armenian Parliament's three Standing Committees and by selected staff members of the Departments on Law Development and Analysis and Foreign Relations.

The curriculum includes nine thematic modules presented by international and national experts, including representatives of the Italian and Lithuanian Parliaments invited by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, who will share their experiences of parliamentary democracy with the participants.

It is hoped that the training programme can serve as a basis for future initiatives of a similar kind between the OSCE and parliaments in the region.

A follow-up involving exchanges of staff between parliaments will be organized this autumn for selected participants with the assistance of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. This will include a visit to a Parliament of one of the OSCE participating States with relevant experience in the work of Standing Committees.