The initiative to ensure the needs of the people of Artsakh condemns the Government's decision on housing

The Initiative for Ensuring the Needs of the Artsakh People, which is composed of dozens of Artsakh non-governmental organizations, condemns the decision taken by the RA government on May 16 regarding the provision of housing needs of forcibly displaced Artsakh citizens.

Despite the proposals presented by us several times, the main part of which was reflected in the statement adopted at the March 20 Initiative rally, the mentioned decision of the RA government does not take into account either the strategic goal of the collective return of the Artsakh people, the need for communal settlement, or and a number of other fundamental principles and conditions. Furthermore, the current approach is not capable of fully meeting even the individual and family housing needs of the majority of forcibly displaced persons. Therefore, it will greatly stimulate the further emigration of the people of Artsakh from Mother Armenia and the deepening of the level of poverty.

We also regret to note that this decision was adopted in almost zero conditions of inclusiveness, violating the declared principles of publicity, accessibility, transparency and public accountability and the RA Law "On Normative Legal Acts" and the RA Government Decision "On Defining the Procedure for Organizing and Conducting Public Debates" specific requirements. First of all, clause 10 of the mentioned order was violated. "The public discussion is necessarily carried out in the manner of publication on the official website of the body conducting the discussion and on the unified website for the publication of draft legal acts managed by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia (hereinafter: the unified website)" because the draft government decision was never published on the said websites, despite our many to exhortations. In addition to that, public hearings and public inquiries were not organized on the topic, the demand for which is formulated in point 11 of the order.

The RA authorities have ignored the continuous and constructive proposals and requests of the Artsakh People's Needs Initiative to get involved in the development of the project and to ensure proper public discussions on that important project. In addition to many verbal appeals, the Initiative also addressed the RA Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in writing (on March 6, 15, 21 and April 30), but was met with absolute neglect and rejection. Moreover, under the influence of public pressure, the RA authorities organized formal meetings of some state officials with groups of displaced Artsakh citizens for several days in the second half of March, unilaterally presenting some provisions of the discussed program under the guise of public discussion. Obviously, representatives of our initiative representing the voice of the broad social classes and expert circles were not involved in those meetings.

Taking into account the above, the initiative to ensure the needs of the people of Artsakh,

Demands from the RA government to suspend the approved project in a short period of time and to put it on proper public discussion in accordance with the RA legislation.
Urges persons forcibly displaced from Artsakh to refrain from using the program in this form until it undergoes a proper fundamental review.
It emphasizes that if the RA government does not implement the above-mentioned demand, the Initiative will choose other methods of struggle.