The meeting of the National Security Council chaired by the President of Armenia, Chairman of the Council, Serzh Sargsyan took place today

11 / 10 / 2008

The meeting of the National Security Council chaired by the President of Armenia, Chairman of the Council, Serzh Sargsyan took place today.

At the meeting the Secretary of the National Council, Arthur Baghdasaryan and the Minister of Defense, Seyran Ohanyan made reports and the results of the “Rubezh-2008” military exercises, conducted in the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, were summarized. Discussed were also issues pertaining to other aspects of cooperation among the CSTO member states during Armenia’s chairmanship.

Participants of the meeting discussed also issues related to the current process of reformation of the judicial system in our country. Speaking about the judicial system and the reformation process, President Serzh Sargsyan said, “I spoke about the continuous reformation and the problems of the judicial system in general, at least on three public occasions in the last two months.

My position is clear: the reforms conducted in the judicial system up to date or the registered progress are not sufficient since they have not yielded the wanted results.

There is a deep discontent with the work of the courts in our country. The considerable legislative amendments, which have been introduced, just by themselves are not enough for elevating the courts’ role. I have already mentioned that the fight against the court fraud and corruption is of particular importance.

From now on, my criterion for evaluating the process of the judicial reforms will be not the length of the list of the taken steps but the measure of public trust in the system. I declare that the President’s Staff will periodically ask for social polls to be conducted to indicate not only the measure of public trust in the judicial system for a given period of time, but also its dynamics and alterations. That very dynamics will drive our conclusions on whether the adopted laws and regulations or personnel policy, measures taken against corruption or compound solutions, the increase of the judges’ wages and other steps are appropriate and timely.

No doubt, we should bring the reformation of the judicial system to its logical conclusion. Such a conclusion assumes an accomplished system which would facilitate the implementation of the right of the people to appeal to the courts.

Guaranteed independence of the judges will increase the role and significance of the institute of the legal representation and subsequently, it will assist in implementing the people’s right to have a legal representation in courts more efficiently.

Another two important factors: the judicial system and its structure should correspond to and balance the interests of the society and justice. Distribution of responsibilities among different bodies should be arranged in a way and manner so that to guarantee the functioning of the system of fair court proceedings in full accord with the European standards, which, along with other provisions, assumes the precise organization of the judicial system, strict definition of authority and boundaries on execution of justice for each judicial entity.

We should get to the point where a person, who applies to the court or challenges the court decision, is able to make a reasonable reckoning on the results and consequences of that action. That is to say, the system and the structure must be designed in a way that will meet the public’s demands and balance them with the interests of justice.

A huge task is awaiting us. This is an area where sluggishness or lightheartedness will not be tolerated. I have already spoken publicly about the resolve to do it, now the time has come to act. And I am expecting to see absolutely unambiguous results.”

In the conclusion, the President of Armenia said that this issue would remain in the center of the National Security Council’s attention. Serzh Sargsyan also instructed to initiate open public and expert discussions on the judicial reforms.