ARMENIA INTENDS TO REALISE REFORMS IN 2007

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[03:34 pm] 12 October, 2006

Today, the 27th conference of European Ministers of Justice titled
"Victims: Place, Rights and Assistance" was convened in Yerevan. RA
Justice Minister David Haroutyunyan received his counterparts from
the CoE member countries at the entrance of the government premises.

"God chose Armenia as a country of Paradise, and we chose it as a
site for the conference," said Gay de Vail, head of the CoE legal
issues department in his opening speech. He reminded the participants
of the conference about the importance of rendering assistance and
compensation to the victims.

Europe adopted the Convention on Compensation of Victims Suffering
Violence in 1983. The Conventions on Actions against Trafficking in
Human Beings and on the Prevention of Terrorism combat were ratified
in 2005.

By the way, today Armenia ratified the European Convention on
Cybercrime and the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime
concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic
nature committed through computer system.

"At present we are working out the normative acts of gudicial system
amendments and we intend to realise the reforms in 2007," said Andranik
Margaryan, RA Prime Minister during the conference.

He also added that Armenia finishes the CoE commitments within the
framework of CoE integration and will undertake new commitments.

It is noteworthy that the Prime Minister’s speech wasn’t included in
the agenda of the 27th conference.

Instead, President Robert Kocharyan was to make a speech in the
conference but the latter didn’t come.

By the way, Armen Roustamyan, member of the Armenian delegation
was present at the Conference of European Ministers of Justice who
maintains that Armenia must be guided by the international practice
and use it in our country so that we could have perfect mechanisms,
and complete systems.

He claims that Armenian legal field will fully comply with the European
standards and the judicial system will become more independent and
transparent within two year’s time. He is convinced that "it will
contribute to the better protection of human rights in Armenia."

By the way, the representatives from Andora, Iceland, Cyprus and
Sweden were not present at the conference.

As soon as the conference started the journalists were denied entry.