Membership in the International Criminal Court is of great importance for Armenia. In terms of genocide and crimes against humanity, we are among the countries that have always fought, are fighting and will continue to fight to prevent and condemn these crimes. The Chair of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs Vladimir Vardanyan said this after meeting the Judge of the International Criminal Court Joanna Korner on August 13, who arrived in Armenia to participate in the workshop entitled Presentation of Material and Procedural Rights of the International Criminal Court for the Main Actors of the State Bodies of the RA to be held in Tsaghkadzor on August 14-15.
The members of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs Alkhas Ghazaryan, Arpine Davoyan and Anush Kloyan and the lecturer of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg Gurgen Petrossian took part in the meeting. According to the Committee Chair, the term ‘crimes against humanity’ was used for the first time in international legal documents to describe what happened to Armenians in the Ottoman Empire on May 24, 1915.
Vladimir Vardanyan highlighted Armenia’s cooperation with the International Criminal Court. “It was not an easy way, but we have always realized that it is not possible to implement international justice without the establishment of appropriate institutions of international criminal justice,” Vladimir Vardanyan said in particular, adding that membership in the structure is one of the important components of our country’s security system. “We are still on the way to harmonize our domestic legislation with the obligations stipulated by the Charter of the International Criminal Court,” the MP noted. He expressed his conviction that during the upcoming session it will be possible to adopt all the necessary legislative acts in order to properly fulfill the RA’s obligations before the International Criminal Court. According to the Committee Chair, the relevant articles of the RA Criminal Code adopted in 2021 are aligned with the standards of the substantive articles of the International Criminal Court.
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During the meeting, the interlocutors also touched upon a number of other issues of mutual interest.
National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
