Artak Zeynalyan: "Courts are free; there will be no privileged in Armenia"

On 26 June, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Artak Zeynalyan participated in an event entitled "Establishment and development of administrative justice in the Republic of Armenia". The meeting was held within the scope of "Legal approximation towards European Standards in the South Caucasus" GIZ project, in co-operation with the Court of Cassation of the Republic of Armenia.

Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia Arman Tatoyan, Chairperson of the Supreme Judicial Council of the Republic of Armenia Gagik Harutyunyan, First Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Artur Hovhannisyan, Acting Chairperson of the Court of Cassation of the Republic of Armenia Yervand Khundkaryan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Republic of Armenia Bernhard Matthias Kiesler, judges, German experts and others participated in the event.

Minister Zeynalyan welcomed the participants of the conference and congratulated them on the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the Administrative Court.

According to the Minister, today, the Government of Armenia enjoys high popularity; this must be contagious for the judiciary as well. "Pursuant to the Constitution, as well as international commitments, the principle of rule of law is in place in Armenia. Legal formulations often contradict the Constitution, intentional treaties and judgements of European Court, and we have many legal acts of the Administrative Court where this contradiction is recorded and where legal acts with higher legal force are directly applied. Such judicial acts serve as a reason to feel proud in the international arena. It would be nice, if this became a standard, not something to rule out," Artak Zeynalyan noted. The Minister also touched upon the phenomenon where there had been state bodies that had not been defeated in the Administrative Court or they had been defeated so rarely that it had simply gone unnoticed. "There should not be such bodies in Armenia, irrespective of sonority of the title of that body. There must be no privileged in Armenia. Courts are free; we are not the only ones who are not going to “call” the judges on the phone. We will also not let anyone “call” judges on the phone," Minister Zeynalyan said and urged the judges to implement justice based on knowledge, with conscience and in the name of the Republic of Armenia.

Achievements made in the field of administrative justice over the past 10 years, the existing problems, as well as the vision for future development were presented during the event. A professional discussion was also held at the end of the presentation of the reports.