Agreement on the creation of a Centre for Improvement of Legislation and Legal Research

The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) today signed an agreement for the purpose of supporting the creation of a Centre for Improvement of Legislation and Legal Research.

The agreement was signed by Acting Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Arpine Hovhannisyan, U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia Richard Mills and Director of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Yerevan Mission Deborah Grieser.

Arpine Hovhannisyan expressed gratitude to the Ambassador and to the former and current directors of the USAID Yerevan Mission for believing in the idea and becoming an active participant of the initiative to realise it.

"You have to believe in any idea that you undertake, unconditionally and until the end. I had strong faith in the creation of the Centre. Legislation that is not dependent on the interests of a government agency, development of legislative acts related to the fight against corruption, independent expert examination and professionalism. These will be part of the main mission of the Centre," Arpine Hovhannisyan said.

U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills highly appreciated the co-operation with the Ministry of Justice, emphasising that it has entered a qualitatively new stage in the course of the past year, and noted that the opening of the Centre for Improvement of Legislation and Legal Research, which was partially made possible thanks to the assistance of the U.S. government, is one of the brilliant and recent examples of the strong partnership and co-operation established with the Ministry of Justice for combating corruption and strengthening effective governance in Armenia, and the USAID will ensure strong support to the Centre in the first 12 months of activities of the latter.

Within the scope of the agreement, the Centre will gear funds towards further provision of professionals, the institutionalisation of effective mechanisms for consultations between interested parties and the facilitation of preliminary arrangements of the Centre with an approach for long-term sustainability.