Паст инфо

On November 7 the European Union and the RA Ministry of Justice presented the reforms in the sector of justice in Armenia. Some directions of the EU assistance were presented, which were aimed at ensuring the independence and accountability of justice, as well as improving the judgment enforcement process.

Onno Simmons
The First Deputy Head of the EU delegation in Armenia Traian Hristea

-  The first achievement of the EU assistance is the constructions of 7 new court buildings and repairing of two court buildings. More than 26 electronic information devices were placed, which give a chance to send the complaints via electronic mail. They also give information as to the timetable of cases. I also consider as an achievement the establishment of the Lawyers School with the assistance of the EU. A program is being implemented aimed at creating an electronic notary system. During the implementation of reforms Armenia made a big progress in the sector of Justice. Nevertheless, there are still things to be done. The activities of second phase of the budget support program will be directed towards the independence and transparency of the sector of justice, as well as to the reforms of the penitentiary institutions.

Hrayr Tovmasyan
RA Minister of Justice

-  The EU was, is and will be the partner in different sectors for Armenia. Mister Deputy Ambassador noted in his speech several times the expression ‘the RA Government demanded’. In reality, we did not demand anything, we are asking in the capacity of a partner. In this respect our interests coincide. The challenges that we are facing we are obliged to realize them and the EU assists to the implementation of those programs. We always talk about reforms and transition phase. The activities done are not always visible. But what was done during the last 2-3 years is a real qualitative change.

The judicial and legal reforms program confirmed by the RA President beginning of this year already earned the ‘ambitious’ label. The program touches the issues that need to be solved. It is the issue of our authorities and first of all of my dignity. With respect to the program implementation we will have a judicial system of a new quality.

In the justice sector the issues are multilayered, especially in penitentiary institutions. With the EU assistance we have developed the Criminal Procedure Code that gives answers to many questions. The Criminal Code is in the development phase. The Administrative violations concept was also developed. With the program assistance 7 new court buildings were constructed, 5 of which in the regions.

Aram Orbelyan
RA Deputy Minister of Justice

-  A lot has been done in the scope of the cooperation of three programs. For instance, maybe the Budget assistance to justice sector reforms program might sound vulgar, but during the discussion with the EU it is called ‘The EU tries to buy reforms from us’. In reality there might be people that will say that nothing changes. There might be people who will confirm that a lot of things change. In fact, to realize the change one has to make a comparative. To those who say, that there is no change I advise to take the judgments from 1995, 1998 and 2010, 2012 and compare them. They will see in the end whether there is an improvement in the judgment enforcement process or not. Of course it is also obvious that there are challenges in the sector, but if there were no challenges, the judicial and legal reforms program would no be so big.