Ministry of Justice: Anti-Corruption Strategy will be a consensus document and will be adopted exclusively after large-scale discussions

On 19 December 2018, the Republic of Armenia Anti-Corruption Strategy and its Implementation Action Plan for 2019-2022 were published on the unified website for publication of legal acts' drafts (www.e-draft.am) of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia. However, it should be mentioned that the co-operation with non-governmental organisations over the draft Strategy was launched back in October 2018. In particular, to indicate the vision of the Strategy, the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia addressed interested non-governmental organisations so that the latter could submit recommendations in the form of actions and directions. At the same time, the interested organisations were also invited to the Ministry of Justice for the mentioned purpose. Throughout 2018, the Ministry addressed sector-specific non-governmental organisations three times, asking them to submit their recommendations regarding the new Strategy, their evaluations of the existing Strategy for the purpose of incorporating them in the text of the Strategy, as well as the surveys in regard to corruption.

It should be mentioned that a few organisations submitted recommendations.

 Taking into account the velvet revolution that took place in the country in 2018 and the formation of a new government and the overt intolerance towards corruption, the activities for development of the Strategy were actively restarted in the fall of 2018.

On 19 December 2018, a series of discussions on the Strategy were launched at the initiative of the Ministry and with the support of the Anti-Corruption Coalition of Civil Society Organisations of Armenia and the Armenian Lawyers' Association. On 19 December, the initial version was submitted to the Anti-Corruption Coalition and other invited NGOs for consideration. Moreover, the draft was first submitted to NGOs for consideration in the format of a working document prior to official circulation. The same day, the draft was posted on e-draft.am for public discussion. In this sense, we deem it necessary to state that the draft put for discussion mainly contains actions arising from the international commitments of the Republic of Armenia and presented by state bodies and non-governmental organisations. At the same time, taking into account the importance and peculiarity of the Anti-Corruption Strategy, the working version of the draft has been presented for public discussion, with the hope to revise the draft after discussions and present the revised draft to the civil society once again.

Parallel to that, non-governmental organisations have proposed to postpone adoption of the Strategy till the adoption of the new programme of the government formed as a result of the elections of the National Assembly, and this is currently being considered.

We would like to inform that the series of discussions in the marzes (provinces) will be launched in January 2019.

The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia calls on all interested persons and non-governmental organisations to submit their constructive recommendations within the framework of the established mechanisms, if available. At the same time, we assure you that the Strategy will be a consensus document and will be adopted exclusively after large-scale discussions.