On 10 October 2019, during the meeting the Government of the Republic of Armenia approved the “Judicial and Legal Reforms’ Strategy of the Republic of Armenia and its Implementation Action Plan for 2019-2023” presented by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia (hereinafter: the Strategy), that we may consider another successful example of state-civil society partnership and constructive dialogue.
Below is shortly represented the main stages of this process:
- On 28 November 2018, within the framework of the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project (CCD) in cooperation with the RA Government the Armenian Lawyers’ Association (the ALA) organized the Civil Society-Government Forum entitled “The Possibilities of Introducing Mechanisms of Transitional Justice in the RA in the Light of International Experience” (hereinafter: the Forum) (more info at: https://armla.am/en/3273.html ).
- On 21 February 2019, the ALA published the report drafted by itself that is entitled
“Applicability of the Mechanisms of Transitional Justice in the Republic of Armenia in the Light of International Experience” (hereinafter: the Report). The Report provides not only an overview of transitional justice, its mechanisms (Chapter 1) and international experience (Appendix 1), but also introduces pre-conditions in the context of economic and social, legal and political factors (Chapter 2) for transitional justice applicability in the Republic of Armenia. As well as, the Appendix 2 introduces the summary of the Forum (more info at: https://armla.am/en/3752.html). The Report has been also represented by the ALA President Mr Karen Zadoyan in the National Assembly of the RA during the hearings of 24 May, 2019 (more info at: https://armla.am/en/4227.html). It is worth mentioning that the Report presents recommendations on the possible application of transitional justice in the RA according to the period of application, the scale of cases and the mechanisms of application. We would like to inform that the recommendations in “Criminal Justice” and “Truth Seeking” sections of the Report concerning the establishment of a Court specialized in investigating corruption crimes and the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission had been later adopted and incorporated into the Strategy. - On 9 August 2019, the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia published for public discussions on the e-draft.am – the unified website for publication of legal acts drafts, the “Draft Law on making Changes and Amendments to the Constitutional Law Judicial Code of the Republic of Armenia”; the “Draft Law on making Changes and Amendments to the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Constitutional Court”; the “Law on Corruption Prevention Commission of the RA” and other related laws. We inform you that these Drafts have been developed under the objective 5, 6 and 7 of the 2019-2020 Action Plan’s Annex 2 of Strategy. The Armenian CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition (hereinafter: the Coalition) and the ALA have presented legal opinions, comments and recommendations on these Drafts (more info at: https://armla.am/en/5046.html).
- On 10 September 2019, the ALA President Karen Zadoyan participated in a round-table discussion on the Draft Strategy and expressed his concerns on the transitional justice mechanisms envisaged by the Draft Strategy, particularly the establishment and operation of the Fact-Finding Committee. According to him, the planned actions do not fully reflect the idea, aims and tools of transitional justice. Moreover, no synergies between the other three transitional justice mechanisms, as well as other strategies, such as human rights, anti-corruption, had been taken into consideration (more info at: https://armla.am/44714.html ) .
- On 18 September, the ALA’s Lawyer-Experts discussed the legal-judicial and anti-corruption reforms with the experts of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission). They referred to the main directions of the Strategy, such as issues of securing the rule of law through the application of the transitional justice toolkit and the implementation of the constitutional reforms, as well as introducing the developments related to the introduction of the new anti-corruption institutional system in Armenia (more info at: https://armla.am/en/5013.html).
- On 6 September 2019, the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia published the Draft Strategy on e-draft.am–the unified website for publication of legal acts drafts for public discussion about which the Coalition and tha ALA presented their expert opinion, remarks and reccomendations (more info at: https://armla.am/en/4825.html) .
- On 27 September 2019, within the framework of the EU-funded CCD project the Civil Society-Government Conference “2019-2023 RA Judicial and Legal Reforms Strategy in the Light of Increasing Public Trust” was organized jointly by the ALA, the Ministry of Justice and the Committee on State and Legal Affairs of the Public Council (more info at: https://armla.am/en/4859.html).
- On 8 October 2019, the summary of the Civil Society-Government Conference “2019-2023 RA Judicial and Legal Reforms Strategy in the Context of Increasing Public Trust” was published (more info at: https://armla.am/en/4971.html ).
Thus we can state that:
- The Report[1] drafted by the ALA has been the basis to define the 2nd objective of the Strategy, entitled “Establishing real democracy and strengthening the rule of law through the application of transitional justice tools” and to justify the necessity of the transitional justice toolkits’
- Plenty of recommendations have been adopted and included in the Strategy concerning the 1st Activity of the 2nd Objective of the Strategy, entitled the “Development of the Law “On the Procedure of the Find-Facting Committee formation and its activities” (if necessary, a package of draft laws)” . Moreover, in the recommendations on Draft Strategy the main principles and criterias for the Find-Facting Committee’s operation have been included based on the international experience that can be useful during the development of the above mentioned Draft L
- Under the 1st Activity of the 5th Objective, entitled “The Improvement of the qualification of candidates for judges”, it has been stated that the engagement of the international experts during the process of the Anti-Corruption Courts’ judges election will be ensured.
- Under the 8th Objective as strategical direction the formation of the anti-corruption courts is defined that is envisaged also by the “RA Anti-Corruption Strategy and its Action Plan 2019-2022” (more info at: https://bit.ly/2Pw1FNA ).
- Under the 4th Activity of the 10th Objective, entitled “Implement structural changes and capacity building of the Prosecutor’s Office in the area of non-criminal defense of state interests, as well as investigating corruption, economic, official and other crimes, working with electronic evidence and other areas”, the ALA’s recommendations have been included concerning the structural changes in the Prosecutor’s Office related to the necessity of the new department formation to fight against corruption, as well as the need of capacity building in the area of non-criminal defense of state interests.
[1] See Government Decision N 1441-N dated to 10 October 2019, Appendix N 1, page 13th.