Court cases examinations and rendering of criminal judgments within reasonable time limits — Deputy Minister of Justice presents sector-specific reforms during discussion organised by Council of Europe

Deputy Minister of Justice Levon Balyan took part in a roundtable discussion "On reasonable time limits for examination of court cases and compulsory enforcement, compensation for the damage caused as a result of delayed enforcement and failure to enforce the judicial acts".

Greeting the attendees, Levon Balyan noted that examination of court cases and ensuring of their enforcement within reasonable time limits is not only an important indicator of the guarantee of the right to fair trial and of the effectiveness of activities of the judicial system, but is also a factor ensuring public confidence in the judiciary.

The Deputy Minister expressed gratitude to the Council of Europe for the effective and successful co-operation with the Ministry of Justice, as well as to international expert of the Council of Europe, Mr Mathieu Chardon for his valuable contribution to the roundtable discussion and in the context of ensuring compliance of the new legislation on enforcement proceedings with European standards.

During the discussion, Director of the "Centre for Legislation Development and Legal Research" Foundation of the Ministry of Justice Tigran Dadunts and Advisor to the Minister Elina Geghamyan also delivered their speeches, presenting the legislative amendments made to guarantee reasonable time limits for examination and the current legislative amendments, the toolkit for compensation for damage caused by violation of the reasonable time limits for examination of court cases and enforcement proceedings, the existing and envisaged regulations, as well as the paths for improvement of the legislation and practice.

The norms of the new Law "On enforcement proceedings" for ensuring reasonable time limits for compulsory enforcement were also discussed, and the key tools for the new electronic system of the Compulsory Enforcement Service were presented. The international expert of the Council of Europe presented the relevant European standards, the main sector-specific judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the steps that need to be taken to guarantee the reasonable time limits for examination of cases and compulsory enforcement in practice in Armenia.

The roundtable discussion was organised by the Directorate of Programme Co-ordination of the Council of Europe, within the scope of the “Support to the effective execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in Armenia” Project, which is funded by the Human Rights Trust Fund and is being implemented within the scope of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Armenia 2023-2026.