YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)Yerevan Mayor Vano Siradeghian recently met with a delegation of the Council of Europe–which included Justice of the European Court on Human Rights Jezhi Makarcik and members of the Human Rights commission of the Council of Europe Daniel Szwab and Christian Duran.
During the meeting–Siradeghian noted that problems which Armenia faced were typical for countries of the post-Soviet period–and that the protracted war and the blockade added to its problems. All this was hampering the revival of the economy and creating certain difficulties for the legislation.
Makarcik said the delegation’s mission was to study the judiciary of Armenia and prospects for its development. The delegation is to submit a relevant report to the Council of Europe after the completion of the visit.
He noted that Yerevan was one of the cities whose residents’ security was on a high level–and he would wish the same to his native city–Warsaw.
At the request of the guests–Siradeghian briefly presented the situation after the elections to the local self-government. Noting that the current Constitution entrusts the local bodies with rather broad authorities–Siradeghian said that it would take about two years to make the system function efficiently.
Levon Ter-Petrosyan met Friday with a delegation of the Human Rights Commission of the Inter parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. At the guests’ request the President presented the stance of the Armenian authorities on the problems of human rights protection and major trends of legislation reforms in this field.
He said that Armenia planned to introduce changes into its legislation referring to norms that do not correspond to the standards set by the Council of Europe. He particularly–stressed the necessity of reforms in the judicial branch of government.
