Increase in salaries of judges, establishment of Arbitration Centre; Armenuhi Harutyunyan presents reforms in justice sector at Congress of Armenian Lawyers

Today, Deputy Minister of Justice Armenuhi Harutyunyan participated in a panel discussion of the ''Congress of Armenian Lawyers'' which was organised by the Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs. In her speech, Harutyunyan attached importance to the event and the role of the legal community of the Armenian Diaspora in supporting legislative reforms in Armenia.

The Deputy Minister presented the institutional reforms of the judicial and legal system in Armenia and particularly touched upon the 2022-2026 Strategy for Judicial and Legal Reforms, which is approved by the Government and which predetermines the main strategic objectives and directions for the sector for the upcoming 5 years. Adoption of the Strategy is hinged on, inter alia, the need for increasing independence and impartiality of the judicial system and the public confidence in the judicial system, easing the workload of courts, improving the quality of provision of public services, improving a number of legislative acts, introducing a single management system of electronic justice.

Armenuhi Harutyunyan informed that the Strategy envisages 12 strategic objectives and 41 strategic directions under those objectives – in the areas of e-justice, application of toolkits for transitional justice, reforms of democratic institutions (in particular, constitutional and electoral) and the judicial system, criminal-legal, civil and civil procedure, administrative and administrative procedure, bankruptcy, alternative methods for settlement of disputes, advocacy, compulsory enforcement, notariat and in other sectors of general development of the justice system.

The Deputy Minister touched upon a few main actions that have been implemented during the reporting period and the main actions that are being implemented, including the creation of a single management system of ''electronic justice'', the increase in salaries of judges, constitutional reforms, house arrest and administrative control as measure of restraint within the scope of reforms in the penitentiary sector, establishment of the Centre for Arbitration and Mediation, as well as a number of reforms being implemented by the Ministry.