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Very often, our citizens complain about the extension of the sessions and proceedings as a result of overloading in courts. In this direction, the reforms implemented in 2023 were indeed crucial, most of which were legislative reforms. Presenting the main directions of the reforms implemented in the field of justice in the reporting year, the RA Minister of Justice Grigor Minasyan said.

At March 26 meeting of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs, the report on the process and the results of the implementation of the RA Government programme (2021-2026) for 2023 was debated.

“I especially want to single out the reservation of some cases of confiscation of the amount not exceeding 2 million AMD to notaries. In this regard, I must mention that the special electronic software is already ready and functioning,” Grigor Minasyan said. The Minister of Justice underscored the increase of salaries of the judges as an important reform.

Effective and significant progress was made in the system in the direction of digitalization in the reporting year. The electronic system for civil cases has been operational since February 1. The Minister noted that the electronic bankruptcy and reconciliation systems will be launched soon. The electronic signature system of court cases has been improved, the enforcement proceedings have been completely digitalized.

“The reforms in the anti-corruption sector implemented in Armenia in 2023 have received high international praise. The elaboration of anti-corruption policy was given the highest points out of 9 performance areas in the report on the RA of the 5th phase of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD ) monitoring. Armenia has come out of the non-compliance process of Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) assessment and is already considered a country with ‘sufficient’ performance,” Grigor Minasyan said.

According to the Minister, a new anti-corruption strategy was adopted. The legal mechanisms of the reporting system have been improved, the types of reporting have been expanded. It was noted that the range of declaring officials has been expanded. The existing legal regulations regarding the requirements of incompatibility of conflict of interest and other restrictions have been specified.

Grigor Minasyan presented the reforms carried out in the field of probation, as well as the work carried out in penitentiary institutions, touched upon the adoption of the new 2023-2025 action plan of the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights.

An important achievement of 2023 was the launch of the new Armenian Arbitration and Conciliation Center founded by the Center for Legislation Development Foundation, the Armenian General Benevolent Union and the Armenian Legal Society of America.

The Minister of Justice mentioned that the fund for providing free legal aid to citizens was increased during the reporting period.

Grigor Minasyan answered the deputies’ questions, presenting clarifications regarding the appointment of the Head of the Penitentiary Service, the scanning system to be installed in the Armavir Penitentiary institution in the near future. He also referred to the conditions of detention centers and the problems of transportation of detainees.

The Committee Chair Vladimir Vardanyan pointed out in his speech that although there are challenges that must be resisted and overcome, he noted that there are certain achievements in the system.

In his final speech, the Minister of Justice thanked for the valuable questions and observations, assuring that after taking stock of all the ideas and proposals, there will be concrete actions for the benefit of the reforms in the field of justice.