The Council of Europe (CoE) supports its member states in implementing European human rights standards at national level through capacity development, exchange of best practices and revision of legislation. The ongoing criminal justice reform in Armenia aims at bringing the national legislation and judicial practice in compliance with these standards.
The Project aims at supporting Armenia in the criminal justice reform through legislative, methodological and capacity-building assistance. It will provide expert advice in the process of formulating and applying criminal and criminal procedure policy by key justice sector stakeholders. This includes capacity building for the Justice Academy to train judges and judicial servants, as well as direct capacity building for criminal justice sector institutions.

This project is funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in their Partnership for Good Governance II (2019-2022).

The main objective of the Project is to enhance the guarantees in criminal proceedings in Armenia in accordance with European standards.
To achieve this, the Project supports Armenia in the criminal justice reform through legislative, methodological and capacity-building assistance. It provides expert advice in the process of formulating and applying criminal and criminal procedure policy by key justice sector stakeholders. This includes capacity building for the Justice Academy, but also direct capacity building for the relevant institutions, especially the judiciary. Special attention is paid to the issues highlighted by the CoE monitoring mechanisms. This includes, but is not limited to the prevention of ill-treatment and impunity, application of pre-trial detention, procedural guarantees in the criminal procedure, etc. The Project attempts to capitalise on the heightened interest of the public towards some of these issues to both raise the awareness of European standards, but also to achieve, together with Armenian stakeholders, legislative and practical solutions most in line with the European standards.

It is expected that as results of the Project:
1. National criminal justice policy and practice will be better aligned with European standards;
2. Harmonisation of national jurisprudence with the ECtHR case-law will be facilitated;
3. Capacity of the Justice Academy to train judges, candidate judges and judicial servants on criminal justice and human rights is strengthened.