States News Service
March 25, 2010 Thursday

PACE CO-RAPPORTEURS WELCOME WILLINGNESS OF ARMENIAN AUTHORITIES TO
DRAW UP REFORM ‘ROADMAP’

STRASBOURG, France

The following information was released by the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE):

The co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Armenia of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have welcomed the prompt
response of the Armenian authorities to their call for a roadmap to
put into effect the reforms recommended in the aftermath of the March
2008 election violence.

We welcome the wide range of reforms announced in the preliminary
response of the authorities to our recommendation, but we would also
like to stress that, in the end, it will be the content of these
reforms, and their implementation, that counts, said John Prescott
(United Kingdom, SOC) and Georges Colombier (France, EPP/CD).

The two co-rapporteurs underscored the importance of carrying out the
reforms recommended by the OSCE/ODIHR in its trial monitoring report.
The ODIHR report pinpoints serious problems with the functioning of
the judiciary in Armenia, and we would like to have a clear indication
from the authorities as to exactly when they intend to carry out all
of its recommendations, they said.

We now await the promised details from the authorities, as well as the
opinions of the different departments of the Council of Europe that
were solicited by the Armenian authorities, they continued. Following
that, and after hearing the opinions of the different political forces
in Armenia, we hope to agree together with the National Assembly of
Armenia on a clear, detailed and specific roadmap, including
deadlines, for the implementation of these essential reforms, which
are in the long-term interest of all Armenians. Nobody wants a
recurrence of what happened in March of 2008.

The co-rapporteurs also expressed their satisfaction at the
publication of the report on Armenia by the Council of Europes
Anti-Torture Committee (CPT), which was made public at the request of
the Armenian authorities following a suggestion made by the
co-rapporteurs to the Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly.