Minister of Justice recaps achievements made in 2019

Today, during a meeting with journalists, Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan recapped the activities carried out by the Ministry of Justice in 2019.

The Minister set aside the approved, measurable and pretentious Strategy for Judicial and Legal Reforms and Anti-Corruption Strategy and the Action Plans arising therefrom as achievements made in 2019, and according to him, the amount of financial support of international partners will be exceptional, within the scope of those Strategies and Action Plans.

The actions provided for by the Strategies include the following:

• Establishing an independent judiciary through continuous improvement of integrity mechanisms;
• Improving the mechanisms for declaration of property of judges and instituting disciplinary proceedings on the ground of violation of property;
• Creating the Anti-Corruption Court, the activities for setting up an independent Anti-Corruption Committee for investigating corruption cases, the draft law of which will be presented on the electronic platform for public consideration soon;
• Developing a draft law on forfeiture of illegal assets, which has undergone a number of international expert examinations and has already been submitted to the National Assembly;
• The issues on extending the scope of submission of a declaration which is in the stage of public consideration and will be submitted to the Government for approval soon;
• The activities related to discharge of the workload of courts through the introduction of mechanisms for simplified administrative proceedings, as well as through the introduction of alternative mechanisms for settlement of disputes (arbitration).

Minister Badasyan considered the activities carried out with regard to the retreat of the criminal subculture, personnel changes, the prevention and disclosure of cases of penetration of prohibited items and the introduction of a new system for supplying food as major achievements.

According to the Minister, the Compulsory Enforcement Service has also recorded significant results: in 2019, the amount levied under enforcement proceedings constituted AMD 35 billion 66 million 527 thousand which, compared with the indicator in 2018, has increased by 22.87% and, compared with 2017 — by 31.1%. This means that Armenia has a more effective Service where the activities for introducing electronic tools are ongoing.

According to Rustam Badasyan, the reforms carried out in the sector of Civil Status Acts Registration have provided citizens with the opportunity to receive, by electronic means, statements of information from any territorial body of Civil Status Acts Registration or the Civil Status Acts Registration Agency of the Ministry of Justice starting from 1 September 2019, and this implies saving of administrative costs.