ArmInfo. The Committee on State Legal Affairs of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia will discuss the issue of ratification of the Rome Statute at a meeting on September 28, according to the agenda of the Committee meeting posted on the official website of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia.
On September 24, in his video message to compatriots, Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan stated that the Rome Statute will be ratified. "We made the decision to ratify the Rome Statute in December 2022, when it became obvious that the instruments of the CSTO and the Armenian-Russian strategic partnership are insufficient to ensure the external security of Armenia. This decision is not directed against the CSTO and Russia. It is based on the interests of the external security of Armenia," said Pashinyan.
Armenia signed the Rome Statute in 1999 but has not ratified it. In 2004, the country's Constitutional Court found the agreement to be contrary to the Basic Law. The Armenian government began the process of ratifying it at the end of 2022, explaining this by the fact that Yerevan, in its new status, will be able to raise the issue of Azerbaijan's war crimes during the armed conflict before the court. On March 24, the country's Constitutional Court recognized the Rome Statute as consistent with the country's Basic Law. Earlier, Russian media, citing a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry, reported that Moscow considered Yerevan's plans to recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, which issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, unacceptable. According to the source, Armenia was warned "about the extremely negative" consequences of such a decision.