Armenia: Consolidation of the Justice System in Armenia

Details: Published: July 22, 2021

Project leader Peter Gjortler (centre) with some members of the project team

EU Grant Project

Consolidation of the Justice System, Armenia
June 2020 – August 2022
IRZ Lead
Budget: 2,2 Mio. Euro

Since June 2020, IRZ has been the lead partner in the implementation of the EU grant project in Armenia entitled “Consolidation of the Justice System in Armenia”. Together with its junior partners, the French organisation “Expertise France” and the Latvian judicial administration, as well as its Armenian partners, IRZ is dedicated to the overall consolidation of judicial reform in Armenia. The project has a total volume of € 2.2 million and a duration of 24 months.

The overall goal of the project is to improve the quality of the Armenian justice system. The aim is to strengthen its independence, efficiency, integrity, accountability and transparency, in line with the priorities of the EU-Armenia Partnership Agreement and the best practices of the European Union. The EU grant builds on the Armenian government's commitment to implement a new judicial reform strategy adopted in autumn 2019. The measures and activities of the project are an explicit part of this strategy and promote it.
The project team, led by Peter Gjortler, is working together with the central actors of the justice system, in particular the Armenian Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Judicial Council and the Judicial Academy. The project is aimed at judges and public prosecutors, as well as non-judicial staff.

Structured in three main components, the project primarily follows a digital approach due to the current circumstances and provides expertise through the use of local and international experts.

The first component is about promoting and accompanying the proper implementation of the judicial and legal reform strategy. This includes the reform process within judicial institutions as well as practice-related issues in legislation and jurisprudence.

Activities under the second component focus on strengthening the integrity of the judiciary. In addition, the capacities of actors in the justice system, including non-judicial staff, are improved through a wide range of training measures.

Finally, an instrument should be created that helps to better measure the performance of the courts – in addition to the performance of members of the judiciary and the public prosecutor's office. To this end, a comprehensive system of assessment and performance evaluation of the courts will be established and supported.

With comprehensive legislation, strengthened capacities and fully functional, citizen-oriented infrastructures, the quality of Armenia's justice system will be improved, and the protection of rights and public interests will be ensured. This, in turn, should help to strengthen the confidence of the public and civil society in the Armenian justice system.