The Council of Europe launched on Tuesday a new program aimed at helping to reform Armenia’s judicial system that has long been strongly influenced by the government and law-enforcement bodies.
The program financed by the European Union and Britain will assist the Armenian authorities in amending the national legal framework for the judiciary in line with the country’s sweeping constitutional changes that will take effect in April. The changes backed by Council of Europe experts are meant to make Armenian courts more independent.
Officials from the Strasbourg-based organization said another objective of the EU-funded project is to improve the existing system of disciplinary accountability of Armenian judges. The latter rarely acquit criminal suspects or rule against the government.
The head of the EU Delegation in Armenia, Piotr Switalski, urged the authorities to “ensure full independence of judiciary” as he spoke at the official launch of the project in Yerevan. He said they should rule out any pressure on the courts from the executive branch or prosecutors. Switalski also stressed the importance of “anti-corruption measures in the justice system.”
Human rights activists attending the event were skeptical about the authorities’ stated commitment to a serious judicial reform. “We’ve been hearing about that since the 1990s,” one of them, Avetik Ishkhanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
Ishkhanian said that the authorities resist judicial independence because it would endanger their hold on power. “If the judiciary is the main mechanism for guaranteeing your rule, then there will be selective justice, an atmosphere of impunity and political trials,” he said.
Another activist, Artur Sakunts, also said that Armenia has no independent courts as evidenced by the imprisonment of opposition figures regarded by him as political prisoners.
Justice Minister Davit Harutiunian, who was also present at the event, admitted that the judicial system lacks a “sufficient degree of independence.” But he insisted that the authorities are committed to reforming it.
“If human rights activists start praising a country, you must leave it immediately,” Harutiunian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “Human rights activists are supposed to bring up new issues. So they are right to criticize and they should keep doing that.”
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