On January 24, 2016, at the invitation of the President of the European Court of Human Rights, the delegation led by Mr. Gagik Harutyunyan, President of the RA Constitutional Court, member of the Bureau of Council of Europe (Venice Commission) participated in Strasbourg at the opening ceremony of 2016 judicial year of the European Court of Human Rights and held a number of official meetings.
On January 26, G. Harutyunyan held a working meeting with Mr. Guido Raimondi, President of the European Court of Human Rights. The meeting was also attended by Mr. G. Kostanyan, the RA Prosecutor General, representative of the Government of the Republic of Armenia at the ECHR; Mr. A. Harutyunyan, elected as Armenia's Judge to European Court of Human Rights; Ms. A. Gyulumyan, member of the RA Constitutional Court, former judge at the ECHR, and other officials. During the meeting, a number of issues on enhancement and intensification of further cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and the European Court of Human Rights were discussed.
Mr. Harutyunyan congratulated Mr. Raimondi on the occasion of being elected as the President of the ECHR, wished him successful implementation of the undertaken commitments and invited on an official visit to Armenia, as well as participate in the annual international conference on the issues of constitutional justice which will be held on October 21-22, 2016.
On January 28, Mr. G. Harutyunyan held a meeting with Mr. G. Buquicchio, President of the Venice Commission. The meeting was also attended by Mr. A. Papikyan, representative of the Republic of Armenia to the Council of Europe, Mr. T. Markert, Secretary of the Venice Commission and Ms. S. Granata-Menghini, Deputy Secretary of the Venice Commission. During the meeting, the parties touched upon the role of constitutional monitoring in guaranteeing the rule of law and implementation of possible steps in that direction. In particular, Mr. G. Harutyunyan made a proposal to organize a pan-European conference on the issues of constitutional monitoring.
On the morning of January 29, Mr. G. Harutyunyan had a meeting with Mr. T. Jagland, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The meeting was also attended by Mr. A. Papikyan, representative of the Republic of Armenia to the Council of Europe, Mr. G. Kostanyan, the RA Prosecutor General, representative of the Government of the Republic of Armenia at the ECHR and other EU officials. During the meeting the sides touched upon the possible ways and means of cooperation with other institutions of the Council of Europe in strengthening the rule of law.
Within the framework of the official opening of the judicial year, Mr. Harutyunyan had private discussions with Mr. A. Sajó, Vice-President of the ECHR, Ms. A. Nussberger, ECHR Section President, Mr. E. Kuris and Mr. P. Pinto de Albuquerque, ECHR Judges.
The delegation from the Republic of Armenia participated in the seminar dedicated to the opening of the judicial year of the ECHR, titled "International and national courts in the fight against human rights violations: Genocide, crime against humanity, war crimes."