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 the conversation with Iravaban.net, Gegham Grigoryan, member of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia, Head of the Center for Social Technologies NGO noted he had not been invited to participate in the discussion, although the coalition had conducted professional studies
Meanwhile, the Minister of Justice Karen Andreasyan, speaking about the discussion during the briefing with journalists on 3 November, noted ․
“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.”
According to Gegham Grigoryan, it is not acceptable for the state structure to work in such a way with the representatives of the civil society. “Former ministers of justice used to send invitations, hold professional discussions, now a part of the civil society is ignored by the ministry.”
The Head of the Center for Social Technologies does not understand by what criteria the Minister of Justice or the Ministry have decided who understands from vetting and who does not.
The CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition and the Armenian Lawyers’ Association (ALA) have published two joint expert studies. One of them refers to transitional justice, the other to the integrity checking and responsibility of the judges under the mentioned conditions. These large studies have also addressed the guarantees of the independence and effective operation of the judiciary. Now do the Coalition member NGOs, and the ALA, understand anything from the vetting or not? I think it is optional for them, they invite their desired organizations, which should be silent about some issues. The recent activities of the Ministry of Justice are selective and discriminatory,” Grigoryan says.
According to him, this working style gives rise to serious thoughts.
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.
