Karen Andreasyan announces launch of the new process of constitutional reforms

Minister of Justice Karen Andreasyan discussed the directions for organising the process of constitutional reforms and the establishment of the Council (Commission) for Constitutional Reforms with more than four dozen deputies, academic lawyers, as well as leaders and representatives of political parties, international and and non-government organisations.

Minister Andreasyan expressed gratitude to the attendees for accepting the invitation for the discussion which will be ongoing, and emphasised that even though the Ministry has a full reforms agenda, it attaches great importance to the professional support and interest of interested parties and views the professional support and interest as useful. The Minister of Justice also expressed gratitude to former members of the Commission for Constitutional Reforms for the tremendous work that they did and assured that the professional "legacy" that they left will be taken into consideration during the new process.

Karen Andreasyan presented to the invitees the proposal of the Ministry related to the establishment of the Council, the Commission and the organising of the process and voiced hope that the drafts provided to the attendees will be improved on the basis of the comments and suggestions to be received, after which the drafts will be officially placed into circulation. "We propose to establish a Council for Constitutional Reforms that will comprise representatives of 3 parliamentary forces, 3 extra-parliamentary forces, 3 non-government organisations and a number of state institutions, including the Minister of Justice, the Representative of the Republic of Armenia before the European Court of Human Rights, the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs of the National Assembly, a representative from the Supreme Judicial Council and the Human Rights Defender. The Council will select five academic specialists, that is, neutral lawyers with no political orientation, who will perform major professional activities, namely development of the concept paper, and later the draft for constitutional reforms,” Karen Andreasyan informed, adding that the Constitution should be written in collaboration with the people, through wide public discussions. "It is very important to have not only the best text of the Constitution, but also a text of the Constitution for which the people will honestly vote,” Minister Andreasyan stated, adding that the IDeA Foundation will help to achieve this goal.

Assistant to the Prime Minister Anna Vardapetyan attached importance to the initiative of the Ministry of Justice to engage the public in this important process from the very first stage and the approach proposed in the drafts to separate political and professional platforms from each other and develop an inclusive text. "It is a great honour for every lawyer to work on the most important document of the state,” Anna Vardapetyan stated and wished the launched process success.

According to Representative of the Republic of Armenia before the European Court of Human Rights, former Chairperson of the Commission for Constitutional Reforms Yeghishe Kirakosyan, even though it has not been published, before the 44-day war, the Commission took a long path, and the conclusions drawn as a result of that, according to Kirakosyan, may serve as a good basis for smoother implementation of the process of reforms. "The proposed model will work quite effectively, as the separation between professional and political components is the right step. It will allow avoiding certain stalemates,” Yeghishe Kirakosyan stressed.

Afterwards, Director of the “Legislation Development and Legal Research Center” Foundation of the Ministry of Justice Tigran Dadunts provided details of the draft legal acts developed by the Ministry of Justice which concerned the process of establishing the new Council for Constitutional Reforms and the Specialised Commission, as well as the rules of procedure of the Council.

After the drafts were presented, academic lawyer Anahit Manasyan, President of Peace Dialogue NGO Edgar Khachatryan, academic lawyer Hrayr Ghukasyan, programme co-ordinator of the Union of Informed Citizens NGO Daniel Ioannisyan, President of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly-Vanadzor Office NGO Artur Sakunts, Head of the Chair of Constitutional Law at Yerevan State University Vardan Ayvazyan, representative of Open Society Foundations — Armenia Tatevik Khachatryan, Deputy of the National Assembly Vahagn Hovakimyan, leader of "Bright Armenia" political party Edmon Marukyan, Deputy of the National Assembly Vigen Khachatryan, President of Europe in Law Association NGO Lusine Hakobyan and representative of the same NGO Tigran Yegoryan delivered speeches and made proposals.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Republic of Armenia Nico Schermers, who was participating in the discussion, considered as noteworthy the organising of an event in such a format during the launch of development of such an important document and assured that the Netherlands is willing to follow and, if necessary, support this process.