Armenia – annual report 2023

Details: Published: September 4, 2024

Strategic Framework

Legal Policy Starting Point

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region escalated on 20 September 2023. After Azerbaijan militarily attacked and captured the region, which was until than mainly inhabited by ethnic Armenians, over 100,000 people fled from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. This was preceded by a months-long blockade of the socalled Lachin Corridor, the main connection between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia through Azerbaijan, which led to a serious supply crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia, which was supposed to ensure stability in the region, did not intervene in the escalating conflict. Armenia also relied

on the support of the Russian-led military alliance CSTO in the conflict. This support was not forthcoming, which led Armenia to turn even further away from Russia. Armenia joined the International Criminal Court and openly questioned the usefulness of Russia‘s military presence in Armenia. Armenia is endeavouring to reach a peace agreement with Azerbaijan. The civilian EU mission EUMA has been active in Armenia since the beginning of 2023 and is tasked with mediating between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The foreign policy situation is also leading Armenia to turn even more clearly towards the West and Europe. The desire for Western support also remains strong in the area of justice. Armenia is therefore continuing to focus more on rapprochement with the European Union and is carrying out corresponding reforms with regard to the introduction of EU standards.

Overall Concept

IRZ supports the process of EU legal harmonisation and is involved in Armenia both within the framework of EU-funded projects and with projects financed by institutional donation from the Federal Ministry of Justice.

These consultations are primarily in the area of criminal and penitentiary law. Training and further education programmes are also increasingly being carried out to promote young legal talent.

Focus of Activity in 2023

Criminal and Penitentiary Law

Workshop on practical issues in Correctional Facility for employees of the Correctional Facility in Vanadzor (part 2)
Training/education for Correctional Facility specialist services: measures for diagnostics and prognosis as well as the implementation of treatment programmes for Correctional Facilityers, which are created individually for the Correctional Facilityer based on the diagnostics and prognosis in Yerevan
Seminar on “Fighting hate crime and hate speech” in cooperation with the Armenian Ministry of Justice in Yerevan
Seminar on “Fighting hate crime and hate speech” in cooperation with the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia in Yerevan

Basic and Further Training

Guest lecture for prospective judges and public prosecutors in cooperation with the Academy of Justice on the topic of “Basic principals of criminal law – verdict and penalty” (hybrid event) in Yerevan
Guest lecture for the student body in cooperation with the Yerevan State University on the topic of “Basic principals of criminal law – virdict and penalty” (online event)
Support for the Academy of Justice in Yerevan in the preparation of a handbook on the independence of the judiciary in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (online and hybrid events)

Projects funded by the European Union

EU Twinning Project „Promoting Integrity and Preventing Corruption in the Public Sector in Armenia“

Since June 2022, IRZ and the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Latvia as junior partner have been implementing a 24-month project in favour of the Corruption Prevention Commission (CPC) of Armenia. The overall objective of this project is to promote integrity and prevent corruption in the public sector in Armenia.

Despite the serious impact of the Azerbaijan conflict on the human resources available to the beneficiary institution, project implementation is continuing as planned. Nevertheless, the project measures have been adapted to the current situation.

The German and international experts involved in capacity building and training on corruption prevention have achieved significant successes this year. They organised several training courses for the CPC team, for civil servants from various government institutions, universities, for school teachers and for journalists. Extensive training material was also provided in English with Armenian translation.

In addition, corruption prevention curricula and materials were developed for primary schools and teachers were prepared to conduct these training courses. Curricula for university courses have also been developed and are currently being discussed with professors at Armenian universities.

At the same time, a communication strategy for the CPC has been developed, which includes communication mechanisms for civil society, the media, external interest groups and the general public. This strategy is intended to support the CPC in its efforts to manage public communication in a society that does not prioritise this aspect. In October 2023, a study visit to Berlin was organised for six CPC employees to demonstrate the German communication approach to corruption prevention. At the same time, the implementation of the anti-corruption strategy by the Armenian Ministry of Justice is nearing completion as part of the project. The Latvian team of experts has developed a methodology for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) as part of this strategy in order to ensure sustainability in the future.

The German-Latvian team of experts also worked on the development of integrity measures for state-owned enterprises and public companies. It developed an evaluation methodology and tested it on pilot companies. The experts trained CPC employees to enable them to implement the plan developed as part of the project to improve business integrity in Armenia even after the end of the project.

EU Technical Assistance Project “Development and Introduction of E-Justice Solutions in Armenia”

Since November 2021, this EU project with a budget of around 1,270,000 euros has been implemented in an international consortium led by the French company GINGER SOFRECO and has now been extended until the end of December 2023 to finalise key activities. The main beneficiaries are the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of High-Tech and Industry of the Republic of Armenia, as well as the Supreme Judicial Council and the prosecutor‘s offices.

The aim of the EU project is to develop a unified e-Justice platform to ensure digitalisation in the Armenian judicial system. In addition, the establishment of an e-justice portal planned as part of the project is intended to bring justice closer to citizens and make the justice sector more transparent and efficient, while at the same time reducing the costs of court proceedings. The e-Justice portal will not only promote access to existing systems in the justice sector, but will also enable new e-services created by the project. Among other things, manuals and guidelines as well as training courses for future users of the portal have been developed for this purpose.

IRZ is involved in the project through the deployment of national shortterm experts and of an international long-term expert specialised in the “development and analysis of IT systems”.

Outlook

Cooperation with the Armenian partners in the area of criminal and penal law is to be continued on a smaller scale. At the same time, the topics of anti-corruption and asset recovery are to become a greater focus of coopration. The further training of young legal professionals continues to be an important focus of IRZ‘s cooperation with the Yerevan State University and the Academy of Justice as cooperation partners continues to focus

on the training of young legal professionals. A large number of measures will also be implemented in 2024 as part of the EU twinning project on corruption prevention.