On 1 November, the Armenian Lawyers’ Association held an online public awareness seminar was held for NGOs, human rights defenders, lawyers and other interested persons of Shirak and Aragatsotn marzes. The seminar was organized in the framework of the “Multifaceted Whistle-Blowing Promotion in Armenia” project implemented by the ALA with the support of the European Union and the “Open Government Partnership Europe” Foundation.

The seminar was aimed at increasing public awareness on the whistle-blowing system, supporting the improvement of the whistle-blowing system and contributing to changing the legal perception and culture of the public in Armenia regarding whistle-blowers, striving to create a positive and demanding image of the whistle-blower as a RA citizen.

At the beginning of the public awareness seminar, Mr. Artak Saribekyan, the “Multifaceted Whistle-Blowing Promotion in Armenia” Project Manager, delivered an opening speech and welcomed the participants who joined the online seminar, stressing their willingness to receive new information about the system.

Ms Syuzanna Soghomonyan, Expert of the “Multifaceted Whistle-Blowing Promotion in Armenia” Project was the speaker at the seminar. She first presented information about the concept of whistle-blowing, and who are the whistle-blowers. Further she talked about the electronic whistle-blowing platforms that are launched in Armenia. The speaker presented step-by-step explanation how people can submit an application on the platforms, both anonymously and openly submitting personal data. The problems existing in the whistle-blowing system were also presented.

Further, the participants held a discussion, during which they expressed their opinion about the whistle-blowing system. Recommendations and ideas aimed at improving the system were collected.

Mr. Narek Botsinyan, the representative of the “Progress” Youth NGO from the Aragatsotn Marz, raised the question of whether there are such cases when reports with the same content are submitted on different whistle-blowing platforms, and, whether priority in such cases is given to any electronic reporting platform. He also was interested as to under whose control the electronic whistle-blowing platform haytnir.am will be operated in the end.

Armen Petrosyan, a representative of the “KhoranArd” Intellectual Center from Gyumri, considered the seminars aimed at raising awareness of the whistle-blowing system to be important, and proposed to hold meetings in the marzes in the face-to face format, involving also the regional officials in charge for whistle-blowing, in order to try to protect the public from lies spread by the media and individuals spreading misinformation and to instill confidence in the official whistle-blowing platforms.

Ms Alisa Chilingaryan, who is responsible for outreach actions of the project, answered the participants’ questions regarding the public awareness actions carried out on the Internet. She spoke about the work aimed at raising public awareness and the materials on the Internet regarding the whistle-blowing system. Active links to a number of materials to familiarize with were provided to the participants as well.

Ms Tatevik Grigoryan, a representative of “Armtumar” Educational-Creative Non-Governmental Organization, also made an observation. In her opinion, it is very important to include online direct communication sections in whistle-blowing platforms, where specialists will show directions to people who want to submit a report in case of problems related to submitting the application.