The Civil Society – Government Conference entitled “The Possibilities of Introducing of Mechanisms of Transitional Justice in the RA in the Light of the International Experience” organised in cooperation of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association and the Government of the RA within the framework of the EU funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project was held on 28 November

The Acting First Deputy Prime Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, in his welcoming speech, thanked for the organisation of the event, and mentioned that the transitional justice is interesting not only for the professionals, but also for a wide circle of society. He noted that in the duration of many years massive violations of human rights have taken place in Armenia, and there were even bloody pages, and today we have possibility to disclose the truth.

“There must be criminal cases, the guilt, the crime, the names of the violators should be recorded, so that such these things are not repeated again, and they will be forgiven on behalf of the society, through reconciliation,” A. Mirzoyan said.

Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Piotr Antoni Świtalski, noted in his welcoming speech that the EU is probably the largest financial aid provider in the field of transitional justice. However, the states themselves have to decide how and when to implement, and no one, even the friendly states, should intervene.

“We will not try to interfere with how transitional justice should be implemented in Armenia … Transparency and comprehensiveness of the process is essential, otherwise all efforts in transitional justice will lead to selective justice. I think Armenia should do everything to avoid it,” Piotr Antoni Świtalski said.

“We, as a committed program and organisation, undertook organisation of this conference through involving Armenia’s independent and strong expert potential. We have done extensive research on transitional justice; the experience of about 35 countries have been researched, both successful and failed,” Karen Zadoyan, the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project Manager and the President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association said.

He mentioned that the first thing to learn from the international experience is that the society should be aware about the transitional justice, its objectives, and what is even more important the peoples should know what will change in their life as a result of this process.

The results of the study will be summarized after the conference, through coordinating all proposals that will greatly assist the government and political forces in making final decisions on implementation of transitional justice.

Ambassadors of foreign states, high-ranking officials and representatives of the RA state bodies, international organisations, civil society organisations, lawyers and experts were present at the event.