On April 13, 2022 the inception of the project “Justice Reform Monitoring in Armenia” was launched within the framework of the conference on “Problems of a New Strategy of the Penitentiary and Probation Field” chaired by A. Sargsyan, the Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia.
The aim of the project started in February, 2022 funded by the EU and implemented by the consortium of the Netherlands Helsinki Committee, the Penal Reform International, the Social Justice NGO and the Civil Society Institute NGO, is to promote the meaningful role of the NGO sector in the justice sector reforms. During the conference Arshak Gasparyan. the President of the Social Justice NGO, and Artak Kirakosyan, the President of the Civil Society Institute NGO, presented in detail the challenges, main targets, introduced institutional mechanisms and expected results of the four-year program. In particular a curriculum, guidelines, tools will be developed for monitoring and evaluating justice sector reforms, NGO platform will be established for criminal justice reforms, monitoring and research grants on access to justice will be provided, as well as research and monitoring reports on implementation of reforms will be developed and presented to the Government. Apart from the set project targets, the representatives of the project “Justice Reform Monitoring in Armenia” emphasized the importance of the joint work with partner organizations. The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, the Police of the Republic of Armenia, the Investigative Bodies of the Republic of Armenia, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Armenia, the courts of the Republic of Armenia, the Probation and Penitentiary Services will be the project partners.
During the conference, which was attended by the representatives of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia, the Police of the Republic of Armenia, other state bodies and the civil society, there were also discussed the implementation of the actions envisaged for 2021 by the four-year Strategy of the Penitentiary and Probation Field (approved by the Government Decree), the expected changes in the current Strategy of the Penitentiary and Probation Field, as well as the directions and targets of the future long term Strategy of the Penitentiary and Probation Field were outlined.
