Rustam Badasyan participates in 14th session of the Council of Ministers of Justice of CIS Member States

Today, Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan, within the scope of his visit to Minsk, capital of the Republic of Belarus, participated in the 14^th session of the Council of Ministers of Justice of CIS Member States.

Greeting the Ministers of Justice of the partnering countries, Rustam Badasyan attached importance to the regular meeting of the Council and touched upon a number of issues relating to rule of law, improvement of public services, and corruption, as well as protection of human rights.

Talking about the improvement of mechanisms for provision of state services to the population in Armenia, the Minister attached importance to the initiative of the Government to delegate those services to the private sector and communities in order to eliminate monopolies and corruption risks, as well as make those services more accessible for citizens. In this context, the Minister of Justice also attached importance to the measure for creating a unified centre of some services being provided by state and local self-government bodies under the “one-stop shop” principle envisaged by the Strategy for Legal and Judicial Reforms, and to the introduction of e-tools, in this regard.

Referring to the fight against corruption, which is declared as a priority direction by the Government, Rustam Badasyan noted that even though the political events that took place in Armenia in 2018 resulted in eradication of systemic corruption, the efforts of Armenia in this fight will be continuous and co-ordinated; the fight will be implemented through both strategic measures and development of an anti-corruption institutional system, forfeiture of illegally obtained assets.

During the session, in the context of protection of human rights, Minister Badasyan also touched upon the improvement of mechanisms aimed at ensuring exercise of the right to receive legal aid, as well as upon the recommendation of Armenia addressed to the Member States for creating a unified electronic network for exchange of information in the civil registration sector within a short period of time.