Workshop aimed at improving judicial and penitentiary systems held

Today, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, Davit Harutyunyan and Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia and Ambassador, Piotr Switalski, took part in the Workshop organised within the framework of the EU TAIEX tool. The recommendations and observations with regard to the reforms in the judicial system and the penitentiary system in Armenia, as well as the prevention of torture and ill-treatment, represented by the European experts of the PEER REVIEW group were discussed during the meeting for the purpose of including some of them in 2018-2022 Strategic Programme for legal and judicial reforms.

Judges, experts having arrived from the EU member states, representatives of international organisations and civil society have participated in the practical discussion.

Davit Harutyunyan greeted the participants of the Workshop and extended thanks to the European Union for continuous support aimed at reforms in the justice sector in Armenia. The Minister attached importance to the activities carried out jointly with the European experts within the framework of TAIEX tool and noted that they had been carried out in a very proper period of time when Armenia is on the way of significant reforms in view of the amendments to the Constitution. According to the Minister, the results of the programme — the reports and the recommendations included therein gave an opportunity to elaborate a strategic programme based on the evidences and introduce a clear mechanism of assessment of monitoring and progress into it.

Head of the EU Delegation and Ambassador, Piotr Switalski expressed his gratitude to the Government of the Republic of Armenia in the name of the Ministry of Justice, for the efforts made towards reforms of the justice sector, the constructive dialogue and for the open and effective co-operation with all the parties interested. According to the Ambassador, the co-operation with the authorities of the Republic of Armenia has five directions — strengthening the independence of the judicial system, introduction of effective tools in the fight against corruption, increasing the efficiency of the system of justice, improvement of the court management system and application of the international recommendations on prevention of torture and ill-treatment. The Ambassador expressed confidence that Armenia will have not only a good strategy and Action Plan aimed at improving the priority sectors, but also achieve really good results.

During the two-day workshop the experts of Denmark, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Sweden will come up with reports and recommendations aimed at improving judicial and penitentiary systems.