"Interconnecting through Culture"

Naregatsi Art Institute hosted the recurrent event of the Project “Interconnecting through Culture” being implemented thanks to the cooperation with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Under the general title “The Right to Work and the Image of the Honest Citizen in Modern Armenia” the participants had a meeting with Marat Atovmyan - lawyer, lecturer, Member of the Public Council, Council of Europe expert, anti-corruption expert.
In the first part of the meeting the labor rights were discussed, and in the second part they touched upon the ethics decent behavior, corruption, good governance and conscientiousness.

-There is a serious need for legal literacy in Armenia, development of legal culture, legal awareness. Speaking of labor rights, I must say that in almost all international legal instruments adopted by both the UN and the Council of Europe, which have been ratified by the Republic of Armenia, it is written that everyone has the right to work, but our constitution since 1995 states that everyone has the right to free choice of work. In this formulation, the authors consider it pointless to provide constitutional norm, that will put an unrealistic obligation on the state, that is to ensure widespread employment in Armenia, - mentioned Marat Atovmyan.

The speaker also explained this phenomenon, citing the experience of the USSR, which, however, was purely ideological in that there was no unemployment under socialism. Obviously, this ideology cannot be considered economically successful. A question arises here whether the capitalist states with a market economy, drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Social Charter, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other international legal instruments, would agree to take on the task of providing everyone with a job.

-Of course no. If we look at the matter from the point of view of the European Social Charter, we can conclude that the state is only obliged to pursue an economic policy that will as much as possible promote employment, eliminate discrimination in labor and employment and protect workers' rights. This is a different philosophy, - said Marat Atovmyan.

At the end of the informative meeting Marat Atovmyan answered the questions of the participants.