Armenia's anti-corruption mechanisms failing, rights lawyer says

Armenia’s anti-corruption mechanisms are not working effectively and the overall corruption situation has worsened, human rights lawyer Ruben Melikyan said on Wednesday, calling for a more coordinated and systemic approach.

Speaking at a corruption prevention workshop hosted by the AntiCor platform, Melikyan said current efforts were fragmented, despite active work by opposition members of the Yerevan City Council and other civic actors.

“Individual anti-corruption initiatives are being carried out, but there is a need for coordination and proper processing of information,” he said.

Melikyan noted that fighting corruption was a central promise of the current leaders when they came to power, but he assessed the situation as deteriorating rather than improving.

“We see this problem in virtually all sectors, possible and impossible alike,” he said, adding that the public was not receiving sufficient information about alleged abuses by those who rose to power on an anti-corruption platform.

He also stressed that anti-corruption policy has a strong ideological and educational dimension, questioning whether schools provide adequate anti-corruption education and whether young people clearly understand that using public office for private gain constitutes corruption.