On 2 November, the Ministry of Justice organized a discussion entitled “Course of Judiciary Reform in Post-Revolution and Post-Election Armenia” with the support of the Open Society Foundations-Armenia within the framework of the program “Partnership for Open Society Initiative”.

The Ministry of Justice reported that the discussion was held “with the participation of more than 50 stakeholders.”

In a conversation with Iravaban.net, Movses Aristakesyan, President of the “Center for Economic Rights” NGO and a member of Governing Board of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia, said that he was not invited to participate in the discussion.

“I saw it and I was very indignant. The Ministry of Justice invited representatives of the oligopoly network of CSOs to the discussion, i.e. those 4-5 NGOs are always loved by the authorities and donor community, always receive grants from them, are always present, always provide an opinion that it pleasant to the authorities,” Movses Aristakesyan said.

According to him, the authorities do not show at all that they can work with all civil society organizations, especially with the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia, which has a great contribution to the development of judicial reform and anti-corruption strategy, most of the recommendations of which have become the basis of these strategies.

The Minister of Justice Karen Andreasyan mentioned about that discussion during the briefing with the journalists in the National Assembly on 3 November. “Whoever understands something from vetting in this country, the smartest people gathered yesterday, we have not summed up the results yet, in 1-2 days they will present what the experts understood, whether it is possible or not. If it is possible, we will start working out a separate law on vetting in a few days, if it is not possible, then we will think about that issue together with the constitutional reforms.”

Movses Aristakesyan mentioned that he had great hopes when Andreasyan was appointed Minister of Justice, alas, they were in vain. “The Minister does not know the field, he does not know who from the civil society organizations and what contribution in the elaboration of those strategies has, and he is moving in the wrong direction. Moreover, I recently wrote a letter to his deputy, Suren Grigoryan, regarding the integrity issue of judges, and why they do not take the right steps, and they sent me an evasive letter,” he said.

Iravaban.net has already referred to the veiled event dedicated to the judicial reforms of the Ministry of Justice and some civil society organizations that have become partners.

To recall that on 1 November, the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia (currently includes 71 civil society organizations) and the Armenian Lawyers Association published two joint expert studies on Integrity Checking and Responsibility of Judges under the extraordinary conditions (of transitional justice) and the Guarantees of Independence and Effective Functioning of the Court.

In the photos: Minister of Justice Karen Andreasyan and President of “Center for Economic Rights” NGO Movses Aristakesyan