Lusine Vasilyan
“Radiolur”
Armenia will assume the presidency of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on May 16. The six-month presidency will not only provide an opportunity to deepen the Armenia-Council of Europe cooperation, but also reach practical results in the field.
In July Yerevan will host a conference on constitutional law, which will feature Presidents of Constitutional Courts, experts of constitutional law from more than 20 countries. According to the President of the Constitutional Court Gagik Harutyunyan, more than 100 renowned specialists are expected to participate in the event.
According to Human Rights Defender Karen Andreasyan, the Armenian Presidency of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers is an opportunity to evaluate the 12-year-log cooperation.
“When we were joining the Council of Europe in 2001, many of our commitments were painful and there was a fear whether the cooperation with the CoE would be useful to us,” the Ombudsman said.
According to Karen Andreasyan, these concerns have been overcome, and the Council of Europe is no more conceived as a structure that could cause harm to our national values. He said Armenia has registered progress as regards the protection of human right, but the issue still remains a painful one. The Human Rights Defender means first of all the judicial system.
“Many of our citizens seek for justice in the European Court of human Rights in Strasbourg because of the imperfect judicial system. This trend will decline only when the national institutions start functioning perfectly,” he said.
