Gibrahayer e-magazine, Thursday 24 March, 2012 - The legislation on the status of the religious minorities has gone a step forward and passed today from the Parliament's Committee of Legal Affairs. It will be on the agenda of the next week’s session of the Cyprus Parliament for a vote. It is expected to pass unanimously. After three years of persistent efforts by the Representatives of the religious minorities of Cyprus (Armenians, Maronites and Latins), spear-headed by the Armenian MP Vartkes Mahdessian, legislation upgrading the status of the communities through the increased powers of the minority MPs is virtually a reality. Procedures to conduct community affairs are set to receive a new momentum, by legislation that will be voted shortly, affecting the decision-making processes that involve the community and its relationship with government and Parliamentary bodies. With this legislation, community Representatives will have to provide a written opinion on matters related to their respective communities. These opinions will be seriously taken into consideration and discussed in each related committee. If the final decisions of committees are contrary to that of the community MPs, a valid, transparent and substantiated position will have to go on record and made public by the committees. In recent decades a lot has been talked about the enhancement of the role of the minority MPs. Our MP Vartkes Mahdessian said that support for the proposed law has already been secured from all parties in Parliament and he believed that these amendments will be passed unanimously. “A major and historic change is a reality” Mahdessian said and concluded. “We can all be proud that a more effective and transparent decision-making process as well as a significant enhancement of the status of our community has been achieved and it is being sealed by the new legislation.”

---