Legislative package on the “Introduction of Probation Service” is discussed with representatives of state, non-governmental and international organisations

On 15 April, a public hearing was organised on draft Laws of the Republic of Armenia “On “Probation”, “On State Probation Service” and “On making amendments and supplements to the related laws”.

Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Suren Krmoyan and other representatives of state, international and non-governmental organisations attended the event.

Suren Krmoyan further informed the attendants of the public hearing that the legislative package was adopted, on 7 April 2016, by the National Assembly during the first reading.

In his words, the presented legislative package regulates the aims, objectives, the peculiarities of putting on probation in the case of alternative measures of restraint, non-custodial punishments, conditional non-application of punishment, early conditional release from punishment. According to the Deputy Minister, by the introduction of Probation Service and application of a new Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes, the system of criminal justice and criminal punishments will undergo changes and will become person-centred and will be aimed at human rights.

“As a result, the criminal restorative justice system will be introduced, which means that it will be possible to achieve the aims of the punishment not only by depriving the person from liberty, but also by carrying out some re-socialisation and re-integration activities with him or her” Suren Krmoyan said emphasising that a basis for introduction of probation is the Executive Order of the President of the Republic of Armenia "On Approving the 2012-2016 Strategic Programme for Legal and Judicial Reforms and the List of Actions Deriving from the Programme”.

At the end of the discussion, a brainstorming session took place.

Let us remind that within the scope of the CoE project “Support to the Establishment of Probation Service in Armenia” funded by the Government of Norway and launched two years ago, training programmes were conducted for employees of Divisions for Execution of Alternative Punishments, lawyers, judges and prosecutors, as well as for volunteers and NGOs; two subdivisions for pilot probation service were also introduced in Yerevan and Vanadzor.