Under the leadership of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the 2023 appointment of the Office of the Representative of the Prime Minister's Office for International Legal Affairs was discussed. activity report.
The head of the office, Yeghishe Kirakosyan, reported on the comparative analysis of the complaints communicated by the ECHR to the RA government and the work done in 2022-2023. On the comparative analysis of complaints communicated under the articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. Details were also presented regarding the procedure for forming the position of the RA government in connection with the communicated complaint.
In connection with the implementation of judgments and decisions, it was noted that general and individual measures aimed at the implementation of judgments/decisions of the ECHR were implemented, cooperation was developed with domestic interested bodies in order to solve the recorded problems, information was presented to the CE Committee of Ministers, implementation of ECHR decisions was carried out / works aimed at increasing awareness of decisions. It was noted that within the framework of violations recorded by the ECtHR judgments controlled by the Committee of Ministers of the CE, there are cases controlled by a strict procedure and cases controlled by a standard procedure.
It was reported to the Prime Minister that during the reporting period, the first bulletin of the case law of the ECHR was published, which includes summaries of the most important cases of the ECHR for 2018-2020. The second bulletin of the case law of the ECHR was also printed. According to the report, research and preparation work on the third manual is underway, which will be dedicated to reopenings based on the judgment or decision of the ECHR at the domestic level and their practical features.
In the framework of legislation improvement and international cooperation, the office provided legal positions on 73 legal acts drafts and presented relevant recommendations, 4 legal acts drafts were developed, which were adopted according to the established procedure, 5 courses were organized and implemented (CE, EU, UN). :
There was an exchange of ideas about individual points of the report, observations and recommendations were presented about the work done by the office and what needs to be done in the future.
Nikol Pashinyan inquired whether there is a mechanism by which, as a result of decisions and judgments of the ECHR, similar problems are excluded in RA in the future. In response, Yeghishe Kirakosyan noted that it is the format of the interdepartmental commission, which is the best mechanism in that regard. Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan in his turn added. "All competent bodies are participating, including the judicial system with chambers, and we are discussing the scenarios for eliminating the reasons one by one in terms of trial dates. As a result of the last session, a large protocol was drawn up regarding the actions to be taken to eliminate the reasons."
Nikol Pashinyan also spoke about the fact that, in the long run, the judgments of the ECHR are also an indicator of how the reforms are progressing and how they are implemented. According to the Prime Minister, the issue should be looked at at least from this point of view. Nikol Pashinyan noted that the presumption is not that there is no judgment of the ECtHR, no one deals with these issues, but on the other hand, it is a view from another place, which, according to Nikol Pashinyan, can be useful in practical work in the sense that if is partially addressed. According to the Prime Minister, one way or another, every judgment has its own content, that is, there may be issues that will be addressed, there may be issues that will not be addressed.
The Prime Minister noted that the government of the Republic of Armenia should understand what it is being accused of, why it is being accused, and what it should do to avoid such accusations in the future. Especially since the ECtHR is a structure that obviously enjoys absolute authority both in Armenia and in Europe in general, which is also a resource for the implementation of reforms of the RA government.
Nikol Pashinyan added that when it was decided that such an office should be created in the Prime Minister's staff, one of its justifications was that this office should be in the center, so that signals would go from here to equal departments and institutes. According to the Prime Minister, this logic has been established and this logic should not only be strengthened, but also put into automatic mode. Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that intensive work should be done in that direction.
