National Assembly making amendments to the laws on civic organizations

Today National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia adopted the package of amendments to the law “On civic organizations” and related laws on first reading. 99 deputies voted in favour with 2 abstentions. While presenting the draft law Arpine Hovhannisyan, the Minister of Justice, noted that numerous matters expressing social and civil interest will be balanced by the new regulations.

The amendments provide that both natural persons and legal entities will be entitled to establish civic organizations. In addition, civic organizations will have right to be involved in entrepreneurial activity. It is important to mention that currently civic organizations are only empowered to register commercial organizations pursuing as a basic purpose the extraction of profit. However, the new laws will let civic organization engage in entrepreneurial activity independently according to the rules established by its charter.

At the same time in case of change of location the organization will not be obliged to make amendments to its charter. It is enough to notify the Agency of the State Register of Legal Entities about the change of location. The law also provides that these organizations will be enabled to have beneficiaries.