A Cabinet meeting was held today, chaired by Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The Executive approved the proposal initiated by a group of MPs of the RPA faction on making amendments to the RA Law on Children’s Rights, as well as a package of draft laws on amending the RA Code of Administrative Offenses. The package provides mechanisms to prevent children from being affected by such information as may contain threats to their full and harmonious development amid non-controlled information flows in the modern world.

The Government considered that there is no need to adopt the draft and suggested leaving the applicable law unchanged. In this connection, Nikol Pashinyan wondered whether the proposed bill might be applicable in practice. “There is absolute freedom on the web today, and children are Internet users, too. As a matter of fact, everything will continue to be accessible, even if we pass the law in that formulation,” the Acting Prime Minister said, noting that there is no way to limit that access.

Nikol Pashinyan stressed that the problem has global implications, and no solution has so far been found to it. He went on to note that issues like that should be discussed and voted in secret, since any anti-propaganda contains a component of propaganda.

The meeting approved MP Mihran Hakobyan’s legislative initiative for amending the RA Law on Security of Persons Eligible for Special State Protection. The bill seeks to provide legal guarantees for the security of the Catholicos of All Armenians. Acting Prime Minister Pashinyan noted that in general, there is no need for such a legislative change as the Government is in a position to ensure the safety of the Catholicos of All Armenians.

“One can have an erroneous impression that there is something threatening to the safety of the Armenian Catholicos in the Republic of Armenia. I think the bill to be irrelevant in fact. Of course, I am prepared to discuss this issue and make a decision, if necessary. I find it incorrect to call the Catholicos of All Armenians a high-ranking official and see him in the hierarchy of government officials,” the Acting Prime Minister said.

The Government discussed other proposals and initiatives during the meeting. The Executive defined the scope of taxpayer’s liabilities subject to checks (including the audits).