The President of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, Armen Ashotyan referred to the bill on “Freedom of Conscious and Religious Organizations”, initiated by the Ministry of Justice.
He expressed his concerns about the project and told that the provision on banning proselytizing should be kept, by clarifying the term ‘proselytizing’, in case of what kind of influence can that negative phenomenon be regarded as human rights violation.
As stated by him, the abolishment of the term ‘proselytizing’ can threaten the spiritual safety of the Republic of Armenia. Mr. Ashotyan explained: “It should be stipulated by law and the functioning of totalitarian heresies and destructive sects in Armenia should be banned. This can also be a legal provision based on European experience.”
He informed that there have been manifold cases when the rights of children’s healthcare or education have been put under question, connected with the parents’ belonging to this or that heresy.
Armen Ashotyan also informed, when he was the Minister of Education and Science, he got familiar with such cases in person and tried to support those children.
The Vice-president of the Parliament of Armenia, Eduard Sharmazanov told he shared the mentioned concerns on proselytizing, radical heresies, rights of children and finds that the role and importance of Armenian Apostolic Church should be emphasized.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
