Minister of Justice receives Co-Rapporteurs of the PACE Monitoring Committee for Armenia

On 23 November, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Arpine Hovhannisyan received Co-Rapporteurs of the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for Armenia Giuseppe Galati and Alan Meale.

Welcoming the Co-Rapporteurs' visit to Armenia, the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia expressed gratitude for the close co-operation and partnership. Arpine Hovhannisyan presented the activities that the Ministry of Justice had carried out and the achievements that it had made over the past couple of months and noted that after the constitutional reforms, the Republic of Armenia entered a stage of large-scale legislative reforms, the first result of which was the adoption of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia by consensus. According to her, there were long discussions on the document with the representatives of the authorities, the opposition and civil society under the principle of equality, as well as through the involvement and with the support of the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR.

During the meeting, Arpine Hovhannisyan touched upon the creation and operation of a new institutional anti-corruption system, the process of declaration of the assets and incomes of high-ranking officials, the independence of the judiciary and the criminalisation of embezzlement.

Expressing gratitude for the cordial reception, the Co-Rapporteurs of the PACE Monitoring Committee for Armenia highly appreciated the reforms being implemented in Armenia and attached importance to the amendments to laws in several sectors and to the efforts of the authorities of the Republic of Armenia aimed at combating corruption.

During the meeting, the parties discussed a number of other issues of mutual interest.