Armenia`s justice minister on need for courtrooms meeting all  international standards 

ArmInfo.Judicial and legal reforms in Armenia have begun to yield results. This was stated by the RA Minister of Justice Srbuhi Galyan at a press conference on January 14.

In particular, according to her, social guarantees for judges were revised, their salaries were significantly increased. Repair work was also carried out on the buildings of some courts, which are equipped with modern furniture and equipment. But in this direction, as Galyan emphasized, much remains to be done in the coming years. "Over the next five years, court buildings in Armenia will have to comply with all international standards," Galyan noted, adding that in this context, 2-3 new court buildings are to be built. 

Another area of activity of the Ministry of Justice is the formation of a system for prompt and effective consideration of lawsuits and increasing transparency in the activities of judicial bodies. "The first steps in this direction have already been taken, but they are not yet sufficient to solve the existing problem, and in the near future appropriate measures will be taken to relieve the courts, reduce in some cases the time frame for consideration of lawsuits, etc.," the minister emphasized.

She added that in the area of civil proceedings, the courts are  already seeing an 80% unloading. In particular, when considering cases related to the confiscation of financial resources not exceeding 2 million drams, the problem is resolved in notaries, not in courts. In addition, other mechanisms for resolving contentious issues have been established with the involvement of such institutions as the arbitration court and the institution of a conciliator. Over the next two years, steps will be taken to improve this system. An electronic register of conciliators is already in operation in this area, and there are already ongoing cases. Nevertheless, according to Galyan, it is necessary to clearly establish in legislation cases of mandatory consideration of disputes  by a conciliator.

In the context of administrative proceedings, the Minister continued, there are many more problems, since administrative courts operate with a higher workload. In this regard, it is planned to revise the Code of Administrative Offenses, according to the amendments to which, in the presence of a number of lawsuits, written proceedings will be provided in the Court of Appeal, which will reduce the time for consideration of cases as much as possible. In the field of criminal justice, Galyan noted, much remains to be done. In particular, it is necessary to think about how to ensure that in the event of a change of judges, court cases do not start from scratch.  The Minister also emphasized that work will continue on the  digitalization of the entire justice system. A digitalized procedure for civil proceedings is already in effect, which allows for the acceptance of claims electronically, but the system is still imperfect, and all the attention of the department will be directed at resolving this issue.

Galyan reported that work has already been done to modernize the Abovyan penal institution, where, along with solving a number of problems, a mother and child department was opened and the quality of food was improved. Work in this direction will continue in other penal institutions.

The minister noted that work is ongoing to prevent criminal  subculture, but given the prompt consideration of cases, she declined to provide specific cases, saying only that in 2024, 3 criminal cases were initiated on this fact.