Rights defenders accuse Armenian authorities of judicial reform failure

The scandal with the publication of the recording of the conversation of the leaders of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) has occurred amid the failure to reform the Armenian judicial and legal system, human rights defenders have stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 20, Ruben Vardazaryan, a former SJC head, released a record of a conversation, in which Gagik Djangiryan, the incumbent SJC head, suggests that he "resign on good terms" and promises criminal immunity if Vardazaryan agrees to resign voluntarily. The conversation took place on February 20, 2021, and Djangiryan's proposal was made on behalf of Nikol Pashinyan, Ruben Vardazaryan has stated.

On June 23, the members of the "Media Centre" Yerevan Club of Public Journalism held a discussion on reforming the judicial and legal system.

The scandalous record has become yet another evidence of the failure to reform the judicial and legal system, Nina Karapetyants, the head of the Helsinki Association of Armenia, said during the discussion. "It's necessary to radically change the system; we need to detail how to achieve this. You can't rely on authoritative personalities, whose methods of work remain unchanged without any qualitative changes; and any reform of the judicial and legal system will inevitably fail," she has stressed.

Asmik Arutyunyan, an expert on legal issues at the NGO "Advocacy without Borders", has linked the failures to reform the judicial and legal system with the failed authorities' policy on the issue of vetting (checking and ridding the public administration system of the employees who have violated the norms of the law).

An independent judiciary is the main component of statehood; without reforming it, no matter who is entrusted to rule the country, he'll fail to get rid of vicious phenomena, Ms Arutyunyan has added.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 23, 2022 at 05:19 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.