ArmInfo. The focus of the Ministry of Justice is the protection of human rights. At present, the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights is being implemented in Armenia. This was announced by the Minister of Justice David on February 20 at a press conference Harutyunyan.
The program provides for 96 actions in different spheres, it was developed in close cooperation with civil society. Harutyunyan noted that observations were made regarding the implementation of the previous program and conclusions were drawn. The Minister also noted that at the moment it is the sphere of human rights protection that is one of the fundamental in cooperation with the EU. "17 million euros will be spent by the EU on the implementation of this program, I note that this program covers 5 different spheres: improving the electoral system, preventing torture, equality of women and men, protecting the rights of children, combating discrimination," said Harutyunyan.
With regard to the penal correction system, the Minister noted that at the moment the weakest link in this system is the health sector. At the moment, there is a conflict of interests between the Municipal Health Care Administration and the Ministry of Health for monitoring the health facilities of the penitentiary system. However, in the near future the issue will be decided in favor of the Ministry of Justice.
"In 2017, 11 penitentiaries were equipped with the necessary medical equipment, 800 medical staff of penitentiary institutions were retrained, I want to note that we carried out this program together with the CE and the EU.We intend to also modernize the Municipal Hospital" Prison Hospital, this will be our next step <, Harutyunyan stressed, noting that the healthcare sphere in penitentiary institutions requires a lot of investments, and the Justice Ministry tries to solve this issue as far as its forces are concerned. With regard to the probation system, David Harutyunyan noted that here There are more problems than decisions, but some issues were resolved in cooperation with civil society. "I am sure that the probation system has a great future, but at the moment there are not so many successes," he said, noting that the department is actively working in this As for the justice system, the minister also noted that recently the citizens of Armenia have become more likely to apply to the European Court of Human Rights. "It is difficult to say, plus or minus, but it is obvious that people know and defend their rights. If you look at the statistics, in 2013 there were only 2 decisions of the ECHR, and in 2017 - 27 decisions, "said Harutyunyan.
In turn, according to the minister, these decisions involve two groups of actions - the restoration of the rights of citizens and complex changes in the legislation. At the same time, the minister noted that the quality of justice cannot be impeccable, however, there are always two sides to the conflict, and the losing party can never reconcile with the court's decision. "Thus, I think the whole thing is not in the bad quality of the justice system, and not in the fact that the courts are corrupt, but in the clash of interests." "Who is right, who is guilty, the ECtHR decides in this case," David Harutyunyan said.