Third Armenian-Georgian Legal Cooperation Forum launched in Yerevan

Today, the third Armenian-Georgian Legal Cooperation Forum was launched in Yerevan with the participation of Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Tigran Avinyan, Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia, Minister of Justice Thea Tsulukiani, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Rustam Badasyan, Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme Dmitry Mariyasin, Head of the Cooperation Section of the Delegation of the European Union Gonzalo Serrano De La Rosa; Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Georgia Ruben Sadoyan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to Armenia Giorgi Saganelidze and others.

The discussions of the two-day forum organised with the support of the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme will be devoted to the issues related to the judicial and legal reforms, the introduction of electronic justice tools, the improvement of human rights protection, the fight against corruption, the penitentiary policy and the fight against criminal subculture in both countries.

Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Rustam Badasyan welcomed Thea Tsulukiani and the members of the Georgian delegation to Yerevan and expressed gratitude to his counterpart for contributing to the close and mutually beneficial cooperation between the friendly states in the justice sector.

Rustam Badasyan considered the holding of the forum on 9 and 10 December as noteworthy and, going into detail, said that those days respectively coincide with International Anti-Corruption Day and Human Rights Day, which reaffirms the commitment of the Ministries of Justice of the two friendly countries to leading an unwavering fight against corruption and improving the state of human rights protection.

Attaching importance to the holding of the forum, which is ongoing, the Minister of Justice of Armenia expressed certainty that discussions in such a format will provide the opportunity to solve the problems in the justice sector through combined efforts and, at the same time, voiced hope that the two-day forum to be held in Yerevan will provide the opportunity to further deepen and expand the cooperation between the Ministries of Justice.

Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan greeted his Georgian counterpart and stated that the reforms in the justice sector are of pivotal and fundamental significance for the Government of Armenia and viewed those reforms as a major precondition for implementing other sector-specific reforms and recording results. In this context, the Deputy Prime Minister considered the existence of an independent, accountable and corruption-free judicial system as a vital necessity. "The resolute steps taken and specific programmes carried out in the mentioned direction in this short period allow us to state that our goal to restore confidence in the justice system will definitely be achieved," Tigran Avinyan emphasised, expressing confidence that the mutually beneficial partnership between Armenia and Georgia in the justice sector provides the opportunity to also resist, through combined efforts, the modern universal challenges on the path to implementation of reforms by finding active paths to the solution to those challenges and by cooperating in international and multilateral formats. The Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia stressed that the ongoing and effective development of the relations with Georgia will remain among the foreign policy priorities of Armenia.

Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia Thea Tsulukiani expressed gratitude to Rustam Badasyan for hosting the event in Yerevan and stated that it is a great honour to present to the Armenian colleagues the successful Georgian experience in reforms and hear about the successes and overall challenges in Armenia.

Talking about the successes of reforms in Georgia, Thea Tsulukiani emphasised that several reputable international organisations have highly appreciated the reforms being implemented in Georgia in the areas of the rule of law, the fight against corruption and discrimination, as well as reduction of violence against women, business promotion and access to public services.

Let us mention that the Armenian-Georgian Legal Cooperation Forums contribute to the strengthening of partnering, effective and friendly relations between the Ministries of Justice of the Republic of Armenia and Georgia, the joint stance on certain issues on international platforms, as well as the introduction of the best practices in the spheres related to the competences of the two Ministries of Justice and the expansion and deepening of cooperation through reciprocal visits between the employees of the Ministries of Justice of the two states.