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On April 25, the Member of the RA NA delegation to PACE Sona Ghazaryan gave a speech at PACE Spring Plenary Session.

“Honorable chair, dear colleagues,

Today we are discussing an important topic - we are trying to assess the functioning of the partnership for democracy and talk about the core principles that we all believe in.

The initiative that was introduced back in 2010 is there to promote democratic values and establish structured institutional mechanisms for cooperation with the parliaments of countries that perform rapprochement with the Assembly based on shared values such as the rule of law and human rights.

The partnership itself should have become a dynamic tool aimed at promoting parliamentary democracy. However, I would like to take a minute and look at ourselves as an organization that stands united for democracy and ask ourselves how sincere we are with our values. As we praise human rights and the freedom of speech, we need to question the democratic practices of member states. How often do we see member states not complying with the rule of law or failing to implement European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgments and interim measures or International Court of Justice (ICJ) orders? Quite often. Does this mean we are experiencing the backsliding of democracy? Does this necessarily mean we have to deal with double standards? How does all of the above harm the organization and its initiatives when member states break their membership commitments and statutory obligations?

Going back to structured cooperation, we see that in the case of different states, we can speak about varied outcomes and varying degrees of commitment. The 2019 report further suggested that the Assembly would need to rethink the partner-for-democracy status in a way that takes into account the disparate stages of reform and the varying degrees of involvement of parliamentary delegations in the Assembly's activities.

The report concluded that, for example, Jordan had made advances in some areas, whereas it had stagnated in others. We learned that the participation of the Jordanian delegation in the work of the Assembly dropped significantly in 2020-2021. Since the constitution of the new parliament in December 2021 and the appointment of a new delegation in March 2022, Kyrgyz members were present, though in limited numbers, at the part-sessions of the Assembly in April, June and October 2022. This is a welcome development, but it remains to be seen whether it stands the test of time. I believe we should have a differentiated approach based on the results that each country has shown, encouraging deepening of cooperation for the sake of democracy that eventually creates a peaceful and secure environment.”