06:24, 6 July 2013

Armenia starts creating Probation Service

Armenia plans to harmonise its prison system to European Prison Rules and other recommendations of the Council of Europe, in particular, the probation regime, the Convention for the Prevention of Torture and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). It is done within the programme "Reduction of Penalties Involving Deprivation of Freedom under European Standards".

This was stated on July 1, at presentation of the above programme, which has a budget of 300,000 euros, is funded by the Government of Norway, and is planned to be completed by May 2014. It will be implemented in the framework of responsibilities before the Council of Europe.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by Ayk Khemchyan, the head of the judiciary project for minors and the manager of the above programme, that a number of European countries are successfully applying the probation regime: the number of prisoners there is much lower than the number of convicts serving alternative punishments.

Author: Armine Martirosyan

Source: CK correspondent