YEREVAN. – The European Union will continue to support protection of human rights in Armenia and strongly encourages the government to support civil society, representative of EU delegation in Armenia Andrej Didenko said.

“The EU will encourage the Armenian government to accelerate reforms and to adopt key laws and amendments that are in line with the best practices of the EU,” he said during a panel discussion in Yerevan on Thursday.

The discussion entitled “Promoting Justice Reform and Human Rights Protection Mechanisms in Armenia in the Context of Eastern Partnership” was organized under the auspices of Euronest PA Co-Chairs, EP Chair for the delegation to South Caucasus, the Open Society Foundations and the European Development for Democracy.

EU representative outlined nine priority areas for changes, and among them revision of legal framework for independence of judges, upgrading action plan on human rights, new law on civil society, enforcing anti-corruption measures, law on domestic violence and other measures.

In turn, representative of Armenia's Ombudsman office Genya Petrosyan pointed out the key role of Eastern Partnership project for protection of human rights. She said enforcing of human rights must be accompanied by monitoring mechanisms, and here civil society plays a crucial role.

For his part, chairman of Helsinki Citizen's Assembly Artur Sakunts emphasized that unfortunately changes in human rights are made by the Armenian government only when imposed by the Council of Europe and other European organizations.