Davit Harutyunyan participates in conference on "Preventing corruption and promoting human rights"

On 27 November, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Davit Harutyunyan attended a conference entitled "Prevention of Corruption and Human Rights Protection". Head of the Council of Europe Office in Yerevan Natalia Vutova, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Davit Harutyunyan, Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia Arman Tatoyan; Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Armenia, Ambassador Piotr Świtalski; Executive Secretary of the GRECO Gianluca Esposito, Head of the Penitentiary Department of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Artur Osikyan and others gave their opening and welcoming remarks during the event.

According to Minister Harutyunyan, the fight against corruption is not a simple plan, and if the legal awareness of the public does not change, the best formulations will remain as kind wishes on paper. According to Davit Harutyunyan, reputable international organisations play an important role in succeeding in the fight against corruption. In this regard, the Minister attached importance to the co-operation with the Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) of the Council of Europe and noted that it serves as an additional stimulus in terms of ongoing reforms in the anti-corruption field and in terms of bringing the legislation into compliance with international standards.

"Today, modern tools, particularly the electronic system, provide a wide opportunity to achieve desired outcomes in different sectors. One of the best examples of this is the launch of the www.e-draft.am platform created in order to engage the public in discussions on draft legal acts. I also attach importance to the initiative of delegating state services to the private sector, as a result of which the number of people benefiting from more than 8 dozens of offices operating in Armenia has increased by nearly 4 times over the past year," Harutyunyan mentioned.

According to Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Armenia, Ambassador Piotr Świtalski, in this period, the Republic of Armenia has undertaken big steps in the prevention of corruption and improvement of legislation, which is commended by the European Union. The Ambassador stressed that the EU is determined to continue co-operation with Armenia and, in that context, emphasised the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement signed between the Republic of Armenia and the European Union which, according to Piotr Świtalski, will bring new qualitative changes to the prevention of corruption and human rights protection.

The interplay between human rights protection and corruption, the recommendations of the GRECO targeted at specific target groups and other issues were discussed during the conference.