On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Association of Judges, a number of judges, lawyers, CSO representatives, lecturers visited the Komitas House-Museum. The first president of the Association Alvina Gyulumyan made a speech at the opening ceremony of the event. It should be noted that the Association of Judges was founded in 1997.

“We thought we could create a platform where judges could be aware of each other’s problems, we could make our voices heard in our politics, and most importantly, we could make some contribution to strengthening the independence of judges, because each of us strongly emphasizes the independence of the judiciary, considering it a matter of principle,” she said.

Alvina Gyulumyan thinks that ensuring the independence of the judiciary is not always easy in practice.
“The application of this principle is fragile even in countries with a number of rich European traditions. This is evidenced by the numerous judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, which registered violation of the right to a fair trial on the very grounds that the independence and impartiality of the courts were not ensured,” she said.

In his opening speech, the current President of the Union of Judges Alexander Azaryan thanked those present and noted the presence of the delegation of the Artsakh Republic on the 25th anniversary of the Association.

“Today we cannot but remember the happy memory of Mr. Davit Avetisyan, whose contribution to the formation and establishment of the Association is difficult to overestimate. For 25 years, the leadership of the Association has done a great job in solving the problems set by the

Association. “Today we are ready to continue those works, to give a new impetus to those works,” he said.
Alexander Azaryan noted that one of the important tasks of the Association of Judges is to intensify relations with Artsakh partners, to ensure cooperation with international organizations related to the judiciary, and judges’ unions of other countries.

It should be noted that former Human Rights Defenders Larisa Alaverdyan, Arman Tatoyan, President of the Chamber of Advocates Simon Babayan and others made speeches.