Joint statement of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia and the Chamber of Advocates of the Republic of Armenia

On 20 February 2017, a meeting was held at the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia with the participation of Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Arpine Hovhannisyan, Chairperson of the Chamber of Advocates of the Republic of Armenia Ara Zohrabyan and Head of the Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Arthur Osikyan.

Within the framework of the meeting, the existing main issues of advocacy and penitentiary activities were considered, as a result of which the participants recorded that:

1.         searching an advocate in the course of direct performance of professional duties thereof shall not be permitted;

2.         the person entering and exiting from a penitentiary institution, as well as his or her belongings may be subject to inspection by the administration of the penitentiary institution;

3.         inspection of the documents of the advocate entering the penitentiary institution shall be carried out without getting acquainted with their content;

4.         the Penitentiary Service will take additional measures to ensure the keeping of prohibited objects that the visitor of a penitentiary institution has left at a passport control checkpoint (storage box).

5.         the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia will consider the necessity for relevant legislative amendments in regard to the inclusion of certain objects in the list of prohibited objects and articles, for example, computers corresponding to relevant standards required for advocacy activities.