“We have pondered for weeks prior to joining the panel”
“Lydian Armenia” announced on formation of an Independent Advisory Panel comprising Armenian and international environmental and social performance experts on April 27.
The role of the seven-member Panel is to monitor the Amulsar project, located in the Republic of Armenia, to ensure it fulfills its commitment to operate to best international sustainable mining practices.
The Panel members will convene regularly to monitor progress and to provide objective and authoritative advice on a range of sustainable development issues including environmental management, social management and public health, water management; biodiversity, waste and cyanide management; socio-economic development, governance, and human rights.
Our compatriot Dr. Haroutune Armenian, who is an internationally respected public health expert, is included in the expert group. He is a Professor in Residence of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is also President Emeritus and former President of the American University of Armenia (AUA).
“168 Hours” interviewed Mr. Armenian on the activities to be performed in the Independent Advisory Panel.
Mr. Armenian, serious work should be carried out, for which group members won’t be paid. What made serious specialists enter under such a burden?
The purpose is that the experts supported in issues related to their fields with their knowledge and skills so that solutions were given on high specialized level. Why did we agree to do this? Look, currently there are 100 thousand medical publications and they all were done on voluntary basis. When you introduce an article, you also waste a lot of time on it and only 4 or 5 people read it, however, concern of the scientist isn’t that. It’s important for the scientist that his/her specialization was maintained on a high level, and secondly, that science was able to develop based on exact data.
And when we say examination of the case, it’s one of the most important circumstances. If not, the interested parties may seek answers to questions on the internet, where not exact data may be provided.
It means refer to this first of all as a scientific work.
I’d say work of scientific evaluation. My personal posture for years was that every scientific work brought to practice. It’s a crucial side of science, i.e. not only scientific evaluation of data is important, but also bringing the data into practice, which have basis.
The initiative on development of Independent Advisory Panel belongs to “Lydian Armenia” company. Won’t this constrain you and other members? Are you going to be free in expressing your view even if it isn’t in line with the company’s interests?
From the moment of making decision to join the panel it’s clear for me: if any second I see I’m under any pressure, and we’re going not in a fair direction, I freely have the opportunity to withdraw, leave the group.
What did you take into account prior to making the decision?
A lot of things. I don’t want to say a lot, it’s also an issue of personal approaches, personal philosophy. It’s a matter of responsibility toward the homeland. However, let me say both I and many of the group members have pondered for weeks prior to joining: which is correct—keeping distance or involving in it?
That is to say, it was not an easy decision.
Of course, it wasn’t. When you know you have some fame, you are respected by people, you have an authority among your colleagues, exactly in my case I didn’t want to make all this an issue of examination at my age.
P.S. It should be added that the Independent Advisory Panel will be empowered to: critically appraise the social, environmental and human rights impacts of the Amulsar project and Lydian’s plans and programmes to manage these impacts; scrutinize and provide advice on means to strengthen the Company’s stakeholder engagement activities; and Monitor and report on the implementation of international best practice standards. The Panel will interact directly with stakeholders of the Amulsar mine and will produce an annual public report on its activities.
By Sargis Ghazaryan
