State must strengthen citizens, citizens must strengthen state - PM

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with members of the Public Council on Child Rights Protection adjunct to the Human Rights Defender,  the PM’s Office  said in a readout. Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan presented the council’s activities, aimed at identifying and addressing existing issues in the field of children's rights.

Manasyan thanked the Prime Minister for the meeting and expressed confidence that many concerns raised by the council members would be addressed.

During the meeting, the Prime Minister answered participants’ questions on a wide range of topics, including the protection of children's rights, accessibility for people with disabilities, existing challenges in the education sector, the progress of the government’s "300 Schools, 500 Kindergartens" program, tourism development, air pollution, crime prevention, and state-citizen relations.

On the importance of state-citizen relations, the Prime Minister said:

"In my view, the state-citizen relationship works as follows: the state should strengthen the person, and the person should strengthen the state. How should the state strengthen the individual? There are three tools: the first is education, the second is education, and the third is education.''  According to the Prime Minister, investing in education is the only way to strengthen the individual, and through it, to address all other challenges.