ArmInfo.The Armenian government today submitted the Rome Statute to the National Assembly for ratification. ArmInfo was informed about this by the press service of the head of the government.
Armenia signed the Rome Statute (Treaty on the International Criminal Court, ICC) on July 17, 1998, but did not ratify it, since the Constitutional Court in 2004 recognized the obligations of the treaty as contradicting a number of provisions of the Constitution that was in force at that time. At the end of 2022, the Armenian government applied to the Constitutional Court on the issue of verifying the constitutionality of the Rome Statute. Yerevan noted that the ratification of this document will allow initiating proceedings in the ICC against Azerbaijan for war crimes. On March 24, 2023, the RA Constitutional Court found Armenia's obligations under the Rome Statute of the ICC to be in line with the country's Basic Law.
On March 17 this year, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, back in April of this year. Deputy Speaker of the RA National Assembly Hakob Arshakyan stated that Armenia has considered Russia's concerns regarding Yerevan's plans to ratify the Rome Statute and can act without damaging the strategic relations between the two countries. He reminded that the Armenian government approved the draft law on the ratification of the Rome Statute in December, and applied to the Constitutional Court for review in January. The plans to recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC are related to Yerevan's desire to hold Azerbaijan responsible for its aggression against Armenia, which Grigory Minasyan, the head of the RA Ministry of Justice, spoke about last year, Arshakyan said