YEREVAN. - Armenian NGOs will be able to bring an action over protecting the rights of citizens.

Chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, Elinar Vardanyan, who is also a Prosperous Armenia faction MP, said the aforementioned, presenting the Committee’s conclusion on the draft amendments to the Law on NGOs and accompanying bills introduced by the Government.

This opportunity, which wasn’t provided in the previous versions of the bill, was later included, but only in respect to environmental issues.

Nevertheless, a significant restriction remains: it is possible to bring an action over environmental protection issues only if the given NGO participated in the discussions of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the project (industrial or other), which adversely impacts the nature and citizens, whose rights the NGO is going to defend.

The project might have been confirmed several years ago and the organization might have been unable to take part in the hearings (or it didn’t exist then). But this shouldn’t hinder defending human rights, Vardanyan said.