Council of Europe is willing to continue assisting in implementation of reforms in the criminal justice sector

Deputy Minister of Justice Arpine Sargsyan participated in the meeting of the Steering Committee of the "Supporting the criminal justice reform and harmonisation of application of European standards in Armenia" Project.

Sargsyan highly appreciated the assistance that the Council of Europe has provided in the criminal justice sector, noting that it is also due to this assistance that the new Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes were put into effect on 1 July 2022, conveying new quality to this sector.

The Deputy Minister noted that within the framework of the Project, inter alia, training courses have been held for the introduction of the new Codes for about 550 law- enforcers, methodological guidelines have been developed for the new Codes, expert assistance has been provided for developing the Law "On legal assistance in criminal cases". Sargsyan stated that monitoring of enforcement of the new Codes is extremely important for strengthening and improving the sector-specific policy, noting that sustainable and ongoing co-operation with the Council of Europe will be uniquely beneficial in this regard. Head of the Council of Europe Office in Yerevan Martina Schmidt also emphasised the co-operation in the criminal justice sector and expressed willingness to continue the effective co-operation. Within the scope of the meeting, they also touched upon the results of the assistance provided to the Court of Cassation and to the Office of the Representative on International Legal Matters.

The Project is funded by the EU/CoE and is being implemented by the Council of Europe in the period of 2019-2022 within the framework of the Partnership for Good Governance (PGG) Programme.