Kristinne Grigoryan: “The Government continues to adhere to the values of the Velvet Revolution”

On 7 July, Deputy Minister of Justice Kristinne Grigoryan participated in the remote meeting of the Armenia-Council of Europe 2019-2022 Action Plan Steering Committee.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Avet Adonts and Council of Europe Director of the Office of the Directorate General of Programmes Verena Taylor delivered opening speeches at the meeting.

In her speech, Deputy Minister Kristinne Grigoryan stated that the Government continues to adhere to the values of the Velvet Revolution, that is, strengthening of the rule of law, human rights protection, the fight against corruption and pretentious judicial reforms, in line with the Constitution and international commitments. Touching upon the sector-specific documents on the reforms agenda developed by the Government in 2019, that is, the Strategy for Judicial and Legal Reforms, the Strategy on Human Rights Protection, the Anti-Corruption Strategy and the Strategy for Reforms of the Penitentiary and Probation Services, the Deputy Minister expressed her satisfaction and emphasised that the Strategies have been developed and are being implemented under the auspices of the close co-operation between the Council of Europe and Armenia, particularly through expert and technical assistance provided within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Armenia 2019-2022.

Kristinne Grigoryan attached importance to the voluminous advisory guidelines and supporting materials, which have been developed by various structures of the Council of Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic and are important milestones for member states for responding to the pandemic. The Deputy Minister noted that over the past year, the Ministry of Justice has been co-operating more intensively with the bodies of the Council of Europe which, on the one hand, attests to the confidence of the Armenian authorities in the organisation, and on the other hand, to the commitment of Armenia to develop the best practices in regard to various issues regarding the rule of law and the strengthening of human rights in the member states. During the meeting, the results of the programmes implemented with the Council of Europe in the fields of protection and promotion of human rights, the rule of law and democratic governance were presented. The Armenian side reaffirmed its willingness to continue close co-operation for implementation of the Action Plan.