Strengthening the capacity of the Armenian Parliament

A more effective, professional and transparent law-making process is the aim of an initiative of the OSCE Office in Yerevan. For the first time, the Office is working with the National Assembly of Armenia to provide training for the expert staff of its Standing Committees.

Finding out what's needed

In 2003, the Office took a close look at the Assembly's needs. As a result of this assessment, a training programme was developed in 2004 with the assistance of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, targeting the specific work of the committees. "Strengthening the capacities of parliamentary staff is a good investment in the work of the legislature," says Elaine Conkievich, Deputy Head of the Yerevan Office.

Karen Bekaryan is an Expert in the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations and heads the Armenian non-governmental organization European Integration. "It's very good that expert staff from the standing committees were selected for this training. We are the ones closest to the decision-making process," he says.

Twenty-four members of the State and Legal Affairs Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Defence, National Security and Internal Affairs Committee participated along with experts from the Departments of Law Analysis and Development and of Foreign Affairs.

The course

In June 2004, participants had three weeks of intensive, interactive seminars led by both international and local trainers. Topics ranged from comparing legal systems and drafting laws to European integration and democratic parliamentary practices. The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) was instrumental in arranging for lecturers representing parliaments from the OSCE region.

The most interesting subject for Karen Bekaryan was geopolitics. "It was comprehensive and presented varying points of view from Armenia, the United States, Italy and Lithuania," he explains.

Bekaryan was pleasantly surprised to meet trainers he knew through the Internet or other means. "I had the opportunity to discuss at length with these people face-to-face, not only during the lectures."

Evaluating the course in general, Bekaryan comments: "There may have been a feeling that this training would be just for the record. But I can say on behalf of most participants that, within one week, all distrust disappeared."

Exchanging experiences

In October 2004, fifteen of the most active participants also went on a week-long trip to Budapest to share and discuss experiences with their Hungarian counterparts and local MPs. The packed programme lasted from early morning to evening, with some 20 meetings in total.

"It was a great opportunity to see what was different and to discuss how we could implement similar changes," says Bekaryan, adding: "They even learned some things from us."

In addition, a discussion with OSCE PA representatives in Vienna, which is only four hours from Budapest, and a brief look at the Austrian National Assembly was arranged on the way to Hungary.

Glowing reviews

All participants rated the programme highly and called for it to be continued. They praised the high-quality trainers, the organization and the initial discussions and assessment in the development phase.

"There are several international organizations that help with capacity-building in the civil society sector," says Karen Bekaryan. "The OSCE, however, works both with civil society and government representatives, keeping all sectors involved in the process of democratization."

"The success of this programme was very much a result of the excellent co-operation we had with the National Assembly," adds Elaine Conkievich. "It not only welcomed the initiative but also helped in its implementation."

"Our staff members are very happy with the programme, believing it practical and useful," says Arthur Baghdasryan, Speaker of Parliament. "We look forward to its continuation."

Follow-up

To reinforce the training and to provide participants with reference material, the Office in Yerevan has published a collection of articles from the training presentations with related background information.

In 2005, another three committees will participate in the training: the Social, Environmental and Public Health Affairs Committee, the Finance, Budgetary and Loan Issues Committee and the Education, Science and Youth Affairs Committee. The programme will again focus specifically on their work, but it will be more of a challenge this year because the responsibilities of these three committees differ even more from one another.

The decision to continue is good news for people like Karen Bekaryan. "This programme provides encouragement for improving our work in the Assembly, for setting higher standards," he says. "It is important that it continues in order to maintain the participants' enthusiasm."