Judge of the Criminal Court of Appeal Aleksander Azaryan was elected Chairman of the Association of Judges of the Republic of Armenia. 139 judges voted for his candidacy.

The other candidate, Judge Elizaveta Danielyan of the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation, received 44 votes.

Judge Arthur Stepanyan of the Court of First Instance of the RA city of Yerevan was elected Deputy Chairman of the Association.

It should be reminded that the “RA Association of Judges” Non-Governmental Organization was founded in April, 1997. The members of the Association are the judges of RA Courts of all instances.

From 1997-2003 the Chairman of the Association was Alvina Gyulumyan, a judge of RA Constitutional Court (a former judge of the European Court of Human Rights).

From 2003-2017 the Chairman of the Association was Hrachik Sargsyan, Chairman of the Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction of Armavir Marz.

From 2017-2020 the Chairman of the Association was Yervand Khundkaryan, Chairman of the Cassation Court, Honorary lawyer of the RA.

From the first days of the creation of the Association, “Judicial power” (previously “Law newspaper”), scientific-methodical journal started to be published. From amongst the legally oriented media, the “Judicial Power” was the first to touch upon the judicial practice.

Since 2004 the “Judicial power” journal has been included in the list of journals acceptable for the publication of the results of candidate dissertations, approved by RA Highest Qualification Committee.

The journal is being published with a steady periodicity. Practical lawyers, gifted young people who aspire to fill the ranks of legal scholars of the Republic, appear in the journal.

The “Judicial power” is one of the rare journals, where mostly Armenian judges appear with their scientific articles dedicated to the theoretical and practical main issues of various branches of right. The Chairman of the scientific editorial Council of the journal is Arman Mkrtumyan, Honorary lawyer of the RA, Doctor of Law. Fourteen lawyers are included in the composition of the Council, judges of different court instances of the RA, legal scholars. From 2018 till now Editor-in-chief of the journal is Vahe Yengibaryan, Executive director of the Association of Judges of the RA, Doctor of Law, Professor, Professor of the Chamber of Criminal Procedure and Criminalistics of YSU.

The journal periodically touches upon the main issues of the judicial system, judicial practice, commercial, international, constitutional, civil, civil-procedural, criminal, criminal-procedural rights, judicial supervision over pre-trial proceedings and many other legal issues in separate sections.

After the adoption of Criminal and Civil Procedures, new Criminal and Civil Codes and other legislations, a necessity arose to constantly interpret the norms of the mentioned laws scientifically. Being the only periodical of the Association of Judges, it has published the Decisions of precedent importance of RA Council of Courts Chairmen and of the two Chambers of RA Court of Cassation. The journal also illustrates memorable events, including those related to judges’ birthdays, rewards, ceremonies on conferring of titles, etc.

It has become a tradition to organize anniversaries of appreciation of merit and celebration events of honor of retiring judges, organization of congratulatory messages. Since 2018, in the journal as a novelty there has been provided under separate heading the illustration of the case-law decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as the illustration of recent developments in case-law practice in Armenian.

Association Board meetings, other festive ceremonies, events are held in the office of the Association. Currently the Association Board has nine members, who are involved in various sub-commissions of the Association Board. Association Board has its own regulation of activities which was approved by the 31.07.2017 decision of the Board.

From 2001 till now Vahe Yengibaryan, Doctor, Professor of Law, Professor of the Chamber of Criminal Procedure and Criminalistics of YSU is the Executive Director of the Association Board.

Various issues on the judicial system and on the protection of judges’ rights are being discussed and relevant decisions adopted in the sessions of the Association Board.

For the purpose of protection of judges’ rights, in different years the Association Board appeared with responsive announcements in mass media, to the issues related to the courts’ activities.

From 19-24 November 2005, the issue of the membership of RA Association of Judges was in the agenda of the 48th conference of the International Association of Judges, which took place in Montevideo, capital of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay. In March 2004, the RA Association of Judges applied with a request for membership expressing a wish to be a full-fledged member of the International Association of Judges. The issue of the membership of RA Association of Judges had been discussed in Rome, in the Central Council of the Association, and it was decided to invite the delegation of RA Association of Judges to the 48th conference. From Armenia Hrachik Sargsyan, Chairman of RA Association of Judges and Tigran Sahakyan, Chairman of RA Criminal Court of Appeal left for Montevideo.

In the conference session in 23 November, Giacomo Oberto, Deputy Secretary General of the International Association of Judges, judge at the Court of Turino City, presented the application of RA Association of Judges to the judgment of more than 200 judges, participants of the conference, arrived from various countries of the world. The conference was unanimous, and RA Association of Judges became the 68th member of the international organization.

In September 2007 the 50th anniversary annual conference of the International Association of Judges took place in Trondheim city in Norway, in which also participated the delegation of the Association of Judges of the Republic of Armenia.

According to the Regulation of the International Association of Judges, in the annual meeting, also the issue of the selection of place for holding the next annual meeting was discussed amongst other issues.

Associations of Judges of the Republic of Armenia, Spain, Romania, Morocco and Kazakhstan submitted a tender for holding the annual general meeting of 2008. As a result of the examination of initial tenders in the Committee of Chairmen, Associations of Judges of the Republic of Armenia, Spain and Romania were presented to the Central Council as candidate members of 2008. Discussing the suggestions of the three countries, the Central Council, by a closed secret ballot selected the Republic of Armenia as an organizing country of the annual general meeting of 2008.

Thus, for the first time in the whole region and in the territory of CIS from 7-11 September, 2008 THE 51ST ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF JUDGES took place in Armenia, where more than 216 judges participated who arrived in Armenia from 53 countries of the world.

Within more than 20 years of its activities, the Association has organized multiple conferences, round-tables, thematic discussions, and has published more than 200 pieces of scholarly literature, which come mostly as scientific-practical manuals.