“Current efforts aimed to reforms will allow to gradually bring the judiciary sector in-line with the best international standards by 2020-21,” Arpine Hovhannisyan, the RA Minister of Justice said today at the conference “Reforms of the Past 25 Years in the Justice Sector of Armenia: A Glance Back.”
According to the Minister, during 25 years, the absolutely dependent and voiceless judicial system of the Soviet era has recorded many achievements. “In the Soviet times we had totally dependent and voiceless judicial system, with strictly formally selected judges who were guided by party nomenclature instructions. It was a system which had the objective to protect the state from the individual. We are working until now to change this value system. We have passed a challenging and difficult way since then. But I am pleased to note that much has been done in the system. At the same time, we still have lots of work to do.”
“For over 10 years, the European Union is actively involved in the process of reforming the judicial system in Armenia,” Head of EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Piotr Switalski said to the participants of the conference.
“We have cofounded different projects and allocated around 45 million EUROs. Justice is the key to successful transformation. The experience of many countries of the Central European and many Eastern European countries shows that without effective transformation of the justice system it is impossible to successfully move forward to more liberal system which is based on common values: democracy, the rule of law and human rights. You cannot have effective democracy if the people do not bear responsibility for election fraud. If those whose rights have been violated have no access to effective justice system,” the EU Ambassador said.
He believes that it is not possible to have an effective rule of law in Armenia, if the courts have no power to fight against corruption.
Suren Krmoyan, the RA deputy Justice Minister said that adoption of the Constitution in 1995 was an important step for the establishment of the judicial system. It provided the principle of separation of powers and the administration of justice exclusively by the courts. “I want to emphasize that we have formed a new system from scratch,” the Deputy Minister noted.
Iravaban.net
