Second phase of the "Partnership for Good Governance" project launches

Today, with the participation of Deputy Ministers of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Vigen Kocharyan and Artak Asatryan, the second phase of the "Partnership for Good Governance" project implemented in cooperation with the EU/CoE launched. Head of the Council of Europe Office in Yerevan Natalia Vutova, Head of the Human Rights Policy and Cooperation Department of the Council of Europe Mikhail Lobov, Head of Cooperation Section of the European Union Delegation in Armenia Gonzalo Serrano De La Rosaand and National Coordinator of the "Partnership for Good Governance" of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Tigran Samvelyan participated in the event as well.

During the event, the project "Supporting the criminal justice reform and combating ill-treatment and impunity in Armenia" was also launched.

In his speech Deputy Minister Kocharyan noted that the "Partnership for Good Governance" project is the effective project aimed at strengthening the capacities of implementing reforms in our country, making them compliant with the standards of the Council of Europe and the European Union. Considering the implementation of the project within a wider context, i.e. in the light of development and radical historical transformations of Armenia, the Deputy Minister emphasised that the assistance of the Council of Europe, the European Union, other international partners contributed to the establishment of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Armenia, the ideas that won in the course of the democratic velvet revolution of the last year.

Summarising the outcomes of the first phase, Vigen Kocharyan emphasised that in the course of implementation of the project a number of projects in the justice sector aimed at enhancing health and human rights protection in penitentiary institutions, criminal justice system reforms, the fields of the fight against ill-treatment and impunity, as well as corruption were implemented.

In his speech Mikhail Lobov noted that one of the goals of the project is the harmonisation of legal frameworks of 47 member states, applying the international best practice.

As a good example, Lobov emphasised that the Law of the Republic of Armenia "On the Human Rights Defender" is one of the best laws within the EU territory. And as an outcome of the first phase of the project, Mikhail Lobov recorded the adoption of the Civil Procedure and Family Codes and expressed hope that the results of the second phase being launched would be more impressive.

In his turn, First Deputy Minister Artak Asatryan expressed his gratitude for EU/CoE co-operation and noted that the entire process of developing the criminal justice legislation was accompanied by the CoE close support.         Deputy Minister Asatryan also noted that during the meeting with the working groups on developing drafts of the Criminal Procedure and Criminal Codes, a clear message was given by the Ministry of Justice on the existence of the political will to finalise the process of developing the drafts, which would accelerate their course and the process of conducting political discussions.

Then, speeches and discussions of the representatives of the interested structures on the launch of the second phase of the project continued.