In accordance with the established rules of procedure, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has initiated the hearings of public agencies’ performance reports for 2019. Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan was the first to present his Ministry’s report.
Addressing those present, the Prime Minister noted: “In fact, the government was reorganized about a year ago following the relevant legislative amendments. While nothing has changed in the lives of some ministries, several others have been reorganized. We thought it was the right time to start such consultations. Furthermore, the ministers suggested that we should hold hearings more than once a year in the form of smaller reports or more accurate discussions, so that we could record what we have done and what we are going to do next.”
Proceeding to the report, Minister Badasyan noted that the 2019-2023 Judicial and Legal Reform Strategy, the resulting action plans, the National Human Rights Strategy, the 2020-2022 Action Plan, the Police Reform Strategy, and the 2020 Resolution 2020 were approved during the past year. -2022 Action Plan, 2019-2023 Penitentiary and Probation Strategy and its Implementation Measures Program, Anti-Corruption strategy and its implementation plan for 2019-2022.
The Corruption Prevention Commission has increased the number of bodies authorized to initiate disciplinary proceedings within the framework of judicial and legal reforms. Formerly composed of only judges, the Judicial Disciplinary Committee has been replaced by the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee, whose members include legal scholars nominated by NGOs in addition to judges.
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A new procedure for assessing the activities of judges has been envisaged, according to which the activities of judges will be subject to regular evaluation. The procedure for terminating the powers of a judge on the basis of a significant disciplinary violation has been clarified.
As a result of negotiations with the World Bank, agreement was reached to develop an electronic platform (the amount of financing is AMD 20 million) for notaries to ratify contracts in the field of financial system electronically.
An agreement has been reached to modernize the electronic systems of the Compulsory Enforcement Service (the amount of funding is 80 million AMD).
The international donor organizations were introduced to the programs of digital processing and archiving of the technical description for the modernization of the electronic system of the RA State Register of Legal Entities Agency of the RA Ministry of Justice.
The package of a new budget support program for judicial and legal reforms, worth 30 million euros, has been negotiated and finalized with the European Union. The financing agreement will be signed this year.
Adopted by the National Assembly a early as in 2019, the Law on Amendments to the Bankruptcy Law came into force on April 15, 2012.
Assistance was provided to the families that suffered losses during the March 1 to 2, 2008 events in Yerevan. In particular, 56 applications were satisfied, a total of 630 million drams in compensation was provided
As part of the anti-corruption reforms, a package of draft laws on amendments to the Constitutional Code, amendments to the Law on Confiscation of Illegal Property, and related laws on amendments to the Law on Judicial Code were adopted.
In addition to a number of other reforms in the judiciary, a balanced structure has been established for judges of the Constitutional Court and judges of judges of the Supreme Judicial Council.
In order to prevent corruption, measures have been taken to identify the real owners of state-registered legal entities. A sample form of declaration of real owners of legal entities has been approved, based on which mining companies submitted their declarations. Efforts are underway to develop an electronic system of declarations.
As part of the penitentiary system reform, the provision of food to persons deprived of liberty has been delegated to the private sector. Nine penitentiaries have joined the program; all 12 penitentiaries will have joined it by June 2020. Salaries of penitentiary system staff were raised by about 30% in 2019. Penitentiaries have been equipped with modern security measures
Following the civil registry office reform, from September 1, 2019, citizens can apply to the nearest local office for a service. Citizens of all countries can register a marriage, but the fact that one of the couples has to register in Armenia is not mandatory. Armenia has completely switched to providing electronic documents confirming the registration of civil status acts.
From March 8, 2020, the registration of childbirths in the largest number of maternity hospitals in Yerevan and other functions envisaged by the legislation in force are carried out on the spot. Three maternity hospitals have already joined the program, and 5 more will join in the coming days.
In March 2020, the Ministry of Justice started the process of establishing a waiting room for citizens on the “one-stop-shop” basis. Citizens will have the opportunity to submit applications to the Civil Registry Office Committee, Funeral Bureau and National Archives. The database of the State Register of Legal Entities is available free of charge for those who exercise news-related activities.
Reference was also made to the implementation of the instructions given to the Ministry.
Pleased with the Ministry’s performance in 2019, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stressed the need for continued implementation of reforms in the aforementioned areas in tune with the government’s action plan and highlighted the need for effective and timely implementation of all programs.
INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT OF THE OFFICE OF THE PRIME-MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
