Pursuant to the operations procedure, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has launched hearings over the activities of the public administration bodies of the Republic of Armenia for the year 2019. The first report for the reporting year was the report on the activities of the Ministry of Justice delivered by Minister Rustam Badasyan.

At the outset of the consultation, the Prime Minister stated the following: "In practice, the current structure of the Government is a result of the relevant amendments that were made to the legislation a year ago. Of course, in this regard, a number of ministries have not undergone changes, but some ministries have been formed anew. We considered it appropriate to begin this consultation in this period of time.

For the future, and upon the recommendations of ministers, we may adopt the practice of hearing shorter reports or, better yet, holding discussions on activities instead of meeting once a year so that we can record what we have planned and what we manage to do, not only every now and then, but also in the current period."

Moving on to the report, Minister Badasyan stated that the 2019-2023 Strategy for Judicial and Legal Reforms and the Action Plan arising from the Strategy, the National Strategy on Human Rights Protection and the 2020-2022 Action Plan arising from the Strategy, the Strategy for Police Reforms and the 2020-2022 Action Plan arising from the Strategy, the 2019-2023 Strategy for the Penitentiary and Probation Sectors and the Action Plan for Implementation of the Strategy, the Anti-Corruption Strategy and the 2019-2022 Action Plan for Implementation of the Strategy were approved last year.

Within the scope of judicial and legal reforms, the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption has been added to the number of bodies authorised to institute disciplinary proceedings. The Disciplinary Committee, which is composed of only judges, has been replaced by the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee, the members of which, except for judges, are also academic lawyers nominated by non-governmental organisations. According to the new procedure for performance evaluation of judges that has been envisaged, the performance of judges will be subject to evaluation on a regular basis. The procedure for terminating the powers of a judge on the ground of essential disciplinary violation has been clarified.

As a result of negotiations with the World Bank, an agreement has been reached to develop an electronic platform (the amount of financing is AMD 20 million) for ratifying the contracts concluded electronically by a notary public in the financial system. An agreement has been reached to modernise the electronic systems of the Compulsory Enforcement Service (the amount of financing is AMD 80 million). International donor organisations have been introduced to the plans for development of the technical specifications and digitisation of the archive for modernisation of the electronic system of the Agency for State Register of Legal Entities of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia.

The package of a new budget support plan for judicial and legal reforms, worth a total of 30 million Euros, has been negotiated and finalised with the European Union. The financing agreement will be signed this year.

In 2019, the National Assembly adopted the Law "On making amendments and supplements to the Law of the Republic of Armenia "On bankruptcy"", which entered into force on 15 April 2020 and is aimed at increasing the accountability and professionalism of the Bankruptcy Trustees, reducing costs and time limits in bankruptcy proceedings and introducing electronic systems.

Assistance has been provided to persons who were affected during the events that took place in Yerevan from 1 to 2 March 2008. In particular, 56 applications were satisfied, and a total of AMD 630 million was provided as compensation.

The package of the draft Law "On making amendments and supplements to the Constitutional Law " Judicial Code"" and the draft laws attached thereto as well as the drafts of the Law "On making amendments and supplements to the Law "On civil forfeiture of illegal assets"" and related laws have been adopted within the scope of reforms in the anti-corruption field.

In addition to a number of other reforms being implemented in the judiciary, a balanced mechanism for evaluating the integrity of judges of the Constitutional Court and the candidates for judge members of the Supreme Judicial Council has been introduced.

In order to prevent corruption, measures have been taken to reveal the real owners of legal entities having received state registration and publish information about them; the template for Declaration of Real Owners of Legal Entities has been approved, on the basis of which mining companies have submitted their declarations; measures are being taken to create an electronic system for submission of declarations.

Within the scope of reforms in the penitentiary sector, the function for provision of food to persons deprived of liberty has been delegated to the private sector. Nine penitentiary institutions have joined the programme, and all 12 penitentiary institutions will have joined by June 2020.

In 2019, the salaries of employees of the Penitentiary System were increased by about 30%. Penitentiary institutions have been equipped with modern security measures.

Starting from 1 September 2019, within the scope of reforms in the sector of Civil Status Acts Registration (CSAR), citizens may apply to the nearest territorial body of Civil Status Acts Registration to receive any service from the CSAR, citizens of all countries may register a marriage, and the registration of one of the couple in Armenia is no longer mandatory. Armenia has completely made the transition to the provision of electronic documents confirming registration of civil status acts.

Starting from 8 March 2020, the registration of births of children in the largest number of maternity hospitals in Yerevan and other functions provided for by the legislation arising from registration will be carried out on the spot. Three maternity hospitals have already joined the programme, and five more will join in the coming days.

Starting from March 2020, the Ministry of Justice has launched activities to create a waiting room for citizens under the “one-stop shop” principle, and at the moment, the implementation of activities is in the final stage; citizens will have the opportunity to submit applications to the Civil Status Acts Registration Agency, the State Register of Legal Entities, the Social Security Service, the Migration Service, the State Cadastre Committee, the Bureau of Burials and the National Archives.

The database of the State Register of Legal Entities has become free of charge for those who carry out media activities.

The executive of assignments given to the Ministry was also touched upon. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan expressed satisfaction with the results of the activities of the Ministry of Justice for the year 2019 and attached importance to the ongoing implementation of reforms in the above-mentioned directions, the implementation of measures envisaged by the Programme of the Government and emphasised the need for effective and timely implementation of the programmes.

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