The Armenian Government approved Thursday the strategy of the judicial and legal reforms of Armenia for 2019-2023 and the action plans arising therefrom.

It was presented by First Deputy Minister of Justice Rafik Grigoryan.

According to him, the strategy was designed as a starting point, taking the absolute priority of having a truly independent, effective, corruption-free and patronage-based judiciary. Radical changes are foreseen in the strategy, especially in the areas of efficiency of the judiciary, independence and fight against corruption in the judiciary.

The elaboration of the strategy was based on the Government's Action Plan for 2019-2023, the Armenian Anti-Corruption Strategy and its Action Plan, as well as the reports on the evaluation of the justice sector by various international organizations, he said.

According to him, three action plans were developed based on the strategy: short-term (from the second half of 2019 to 2020), long-term (2021-2023) and the first platform for the creation of an e-platform and access to e-databases (2019-2023).

The next strategic goal is to strengthen the rule of law through the use of transitional justice tools.

The functions of the committee will also include developing a methodology for assessing the activities of the judiciary and law enforcement agencies and assessing their performance, also addressing the detection of corruption schemes based on them. The Committee shall be composed of at least 20 members, the term of validity being two years, allowing for an extension of one year if necessary.

By the way, the cost of implementing the strategy is AMD 20 billion.