The well-known “Freedom House” international law defense organization called on the “Challenges of the Millennium” corporation to stop the aid to a series of countries, including Armenia due to the fact that those countries haven’t protected the freedoms of civil society and political rights. On November 8, the board of directors of the “Challenges of the Millennium” corporation elected the countries that would be allowed to apply for aid in 2007. “Freedom House” says that the corporation should circumvent the countries where the rates are not that high for political rights and civil freedoms, although the rates correspond to the necessary standards for being listed in this year’s elections. “Those countries are “Armenia, Butane, Egypt, Jordan, the Maldivian islands, Tunis and Vietnam,” as stated in the “Freedom House” message. It is worth mentioning that Armenia officially kicked-off the “Challenges of the Millennium” program in September of this year, which will provide 235 million dollars to Armenia for mainly developing the villages of Armenia. “Freedom House” persuades the corporation to pay close attention to countries like Armenia, which have signed the agreements but don’t really meet the standards for democratic rule. “Armenia is a significant touchstone for the corporation because it signed the agreement earlier on this year. However, after signing the agreement, the country hasn’t really kept its promise for reforms,” mentioned “Freedom House”, adding that Armenia hasn’t fulfilled its promise made to the corporation, which is to get the people to believe in democracy and tolerate the opposition. “In contrast to the persuasion made by chief executive director of the corporation and ambassador Danilovich, the results of the 2005 constitutional amendments referendum of Armenia haven’t been investigated. The reforms for the constitutional amendments have ceased in 2006 and, according to the opposition, there will be violations during the upcoming elections too. There are many anti-democratic measures taken to keep power. The judicial system remains under the pressure of the executive branch: Despite the approval of a new law protecting the independence of journalists, the environment hasn’t improved and attacks on journalists continue,” this concludes the message of “Freedom House”.
