Advisor to the Minister participates in conference devoted to transitional justice

Today, Advisor to the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Anna Vardapetyan participated in a conference entitled "The possibility of introducing transitional justice mechanisms in the Republic of Armenia in the light of international experience". The conference was organised within the scope of the EU-funded "Commitment to Constructive Dialogue" project.

Acting First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan; member of the Supreme Judicial Council Gevorg Danielyan; Chairman of the Civil Court of Appeal Arsen Mkrtchyan; President of the Armenian Lawyers Association NGO, the Project manager Karen Zadoyan,as well as representatives of state bodies, international organisations, civil society organisations, advocates and experts participated in the event.

Touching upon the international experience of transitional justice, the Advisor to the Minister noted that it is a supporting instrumentation for the existing legal system. According to Anna Vardapetyan, transitional justice may not be a mechanism for reopening additional criminal cases and for carrying out non-legal processes. "In the process of implementing transitional justice, we are restricted by the undertaken international commitments and criminal procedure mechanisms. The process of transitional justice begins when the State is ready for bilateral conciliation and acknowledges that massive abuses and violations have been committed in the past. After acknowledging this, the State should choose to apply either instrumentation for criminal prosecution or instrumentation of truth and conciliation commissions, and it might decided to take the path to financial amnesty," the Advisor to the Minister noted, specifying that, in this case, it is not about the amnesty everyone is familiar with, but coming to a mutual agreement when subjecting to criminal prosecution is outdated, and the State starts to seek compensation mechanisms.

Let us mention that the essence of transitional justice, the mechanisms for application and the need for introducing those mechanisms in the Republic of Armenia in the light of progressive international experience were presented.