Draft Law of the Republic of Armenia "On political parties" discussed with representatives of Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR

On 15 November, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Arpine Hovhannisyan received representatives of the Venice Commission and the experts of the OSCE/ODIHR to discuss a number of issues related to the draft of a Constitutional Law, that is, the Law of the Republic of Armenia "On political parties".

The Minister of Justice highly appreciated the current co-operation with the partners of the two institutions and presented the amendments that are recommended according to the draft Law of the Republic of Armenia "On political parties".

Arpine Hovhannisyan noted that the new draft Law eliminates the oversight of state bodies, changes the number of members required at the moment of registration of a political party, the requirement for a political party to have a territorial unit at the moment of creation, etc. The Minister viewed this approach as facilitation of the procedure for registration of political parties and emphasised that mainly the mentioned ideology had initially lied at the core of the development of the Draft.

Arpine Hovhannisyan also informed the representatives of the Venice Commission and the experts of the OSCE/ODIHR that the Public Council adjunct to the Minister of Justice would soon be considering the draft Law of the Republic of Armenia "On political parties" in Parliament.

At the end of the meeting, the Minister answered questions from the experts.