The draft of the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was signed back on July 17, 1998. Yeghishe Kirakosyan, Armenia's representative on international legal affairs, stated this during the debates on the respective matter at Tuesday’s session of the National Assembly of Armenia.

According to him, the Armenian government's approval of this draft was due to Azerbaijan's large-scale military aggression against Armenia in September 2022, as well as a number of gross military crimes committed in Armenian territory.

For this reason, the process of Rome Statute ratification, which was stopped in 2004, was resumed. In particular, the jurisdiction of the ICC is assumed to be recognized starting from May 21, 2021.

"Armenia started the process of joining the International Criminal Court about 20 years ago. However, in August 2004, the Constitutional Court [of Armenia] considered the Rome Statute to be contradictory to the Constitution in force [in the country] at that time. The basic law was ratified in December 2005 and 2015. They returned to the process again after the 2020 war," Kirakosyan said.

The lawyer added that the Constitutional Court of Armenia has already considered the Rome Statute as conforming to the country's Constitution.

To note, the parliamentary debates on the aforesaid draft are being held without attendance by MPs from the opposition factions. Artsvik Minasyan, the secretary of the opposition Armenia Faction, stated today that the Rome Statute ratification process is unconstitutional.