A High-Level Public-Private Dialogue Conference on the Judicial Performance and Statistics Systems Evaluation is organized and underway today on 14 June. The Conference is organized within the framework of the “Multi-Faceted OGP Action: Open Justice & Anti-Corruption Commitments” project. The Conference is organized with participation of the RA Ministry of Justice, Supreme Judicial Council of the RA, “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO and the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia.

ALA President Mr. Karen Zadoyan, H.E. Mr. Vassilis Maragos, the Head of the European Union Delegation to Armenia, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Karen Karapetyan, Chairman of the RA Supreme Judicial Council Mr. Karen Andreasyan, Anti-Corruption Expert Ms Mariam Zadoyan, as well as other professionals in the fiel and judges are participating.

Mr. Karen Andreasyan, Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council in his opening speech noted that the EU has been and is the major supporter and partner of judicial reforms, and also thanked the Ministry of Justice, which always provides great support for judicial reforms.

“This is the most important topic of the judicial system, of course I understand that we have urgent problems, we are interested in well-known political cases, today the country is affected by certain political developments, foreign political challenges, and in all this, when certain issues arise problems, for example, protestor activity or police backlash, the first thing we hear is ‘what the courts are going to do?’ When we talk about the economic and political problems of the country, we always mention the role of the courts. Often, some people try to make the courts a scapegoat and find the courts guilty,” he said.

According to him, today the topic of evaluation of judges is the most relevant one, and the structures that have understood how important it is. This means that they also understood what the essence of judicial reforms is.

Andreasyan noted that we are dealing with general injustice towards judges in this field, which issues from the improper assessment of their work, and also from all the unfair accusations that judges receive.

“All judges receive 10 points according to a 10-point system: What kind of a System is that, where everyone is equal?

 That is why we are not trying to invent a new bike, but just to create a fair system by which the judge will be evaluated fairly, for this he will receive fair effects in the form of bonus, promotion, and direct public assessment. At the same time the failing judge will get an opportunity to learn, to improve his/her abilities during the process as well,” Andreasyan said.

The Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council emphasized that they will try to conduct the assessment simultaneously for all judges together, with 5 commissions, and not with one commission, in the form of an endless process. This will provide an opportunity to the judges to see competition n between themselves during the evaluation and this will be healthy competition, and as a result, they will try to implement faster and quality work.