Advocacy – organizing people with a view to influencing political decision-making and policy – has been in the focus of ELA’s attention throughout its existence.
ELA has successfully engaged in media advocacy to influence decision-makers on a number of important occasions. As experts in a number of fields, ELA’s members have presented their views and clarifications to public officials on a number of issues. ELA has successfully mobilized civil society organisations around a number of important causes.
In 2012 ELA has successfully mobilized a number of civil society actors around the necessity to drastically amend electoral legislation.
Second, ELA has on a number of occasions mobilized civil society actors to demand for fair and transparent competitions for appointments to public positions.
In 2014, ELA took the lead in advocating for the conduct of a fair and transparent competition for the selection of the three candidates for the judge to the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Armenia. Thanks to ELA’s efforts the first contest, which was held with serious procedural mistakes was annulled and the President had to announce a second contest. Through its continuous efforts ELA succeeded in having one of the unqualified candidates not be included in the final list of the three judges submitted to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for voting.
In 2015, ELA joined a number of other prominent NGOs to advocate against the constitutional amendments put forward by the incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan with the sole aim of keep the political power in his hands after his constitutionally prescribed tenure as President would expire.
Starting from 2012 ELA has consistently advocated for the declassification of the signed voter lists after elections and a number of other improvements of the electoral processes and legislation. However, it was not until 2016 when with ELA’s both advocacy efforts and expert engagement that this and a number of other important amendments became possible.
In 2018 ELA succeffully mobilized a number of practicing lawyers and civil society organisations to demand for an open, fair and competitive process in the nomination by the President of the State and the General Assembly of Judges of candidates to the positions of judges to the RA Constitutional Court. In this area ELA has also successfully engaged in direct advocacy with several parliamentary factions as a result of which two unqualified candidates were prevented from becoming judges of the RA Constitutional Court.