YEREVAN. – Following my appointment as Minister, I have begun to develop the Judicial and Anticorruption Reform Strategies that address deep issues, not only in the judiciary, but also in law enforcement and public administration systems. Armenia’s Justice Minister Rustam Badasyan stated this today during the parliamentary hearings devoted to the package of bills on amendments and addenda to the Judicial Code and the related draft laws.

The Minister informed that as a result of these legislative changes, the rules of conduct of Armenia’s judges and the grounds for disciplinary action against them will be clarified, the law on the Constitutional Court will be complied with the Judicial Code with respect to the code of conduct, the age limit of candidates for judges will be reduced from 28 down to 25, and so on.

Concerning the latter, the Minister stressed that the Venice Commission has emphasized that the respective European standards refer to merit-based and non-discriminatory elections, and they do not envision a universal standard on age.

According to the Minister of Justice, reforms have also been made to Armenia’s laws on fight against corruption, and that these reforms will have a positive impact on the evaluation of the integrity of not only for judges and respective candidates, but also for other public officials of the country.