Arpine Hovhannisyan leaves for Venice on working visit

09/12/2016

On 9 December, the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Arpine Hovhannisyan participated in the 109th Plenary Session of the Venice Commission and presented the amendments envisaged by the draft Constitutional Law of the Republic of Armenia "On political parties".

Let us mention that the Joint Opinion of the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR on the draft Law of the Republic of Armenia "On political parties" will be approved during this session.

Greeting the attendees, the Minister of Justice expressed her gratitude to the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR for the high-quality professional support and co-operation.

According to Arpine Hovhannisyan, there was one fundamental principle underlying the process of development of the Draft, namely that of liberalising the legislative regulations for the establishment, registration and activities of political parties in Armenia.

Presenting the main amendments to the Draft, the Minister emphasised that Armenia had followed the previously expressed position of the OSCE on state registration and that the number of members of political parties required at the moment of state registration was reduced from 2000 to 1000.

"As regards the territorial representation of a political party, more liberal regulations have been defined by the Draft in comparison with the Law currently in force. With respect to this issue as well, we have been guided by the position that the Venice Commission has expressed several times", Arpine Hovhannisyan said. Presenting the outcomes of the joint discussion with the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR, the Minister noted that the Draft provided for the principle of gender equality and that the regulations of the Draft had been amended so that stateless persons could also join political parties, etc.

Summing up her speech, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Arpine Hovhannisyan once again expressed her gratitude to all the partners of the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR for their joint efforts.