Pashinyan again calls for new constitution, cites gap between justice system and people

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Wednesday again called for the adoption of a new constitution, saying that the judiciary and justice systems do not have an “organic connection” with the people, whom he described as the “highest source of power.”

He made the remarks at the 8th meeting of the EU–Armenia Civil Society Platform.

“We highly value the activities of civil society in the Republic of Armenia, and especially in the context of our ideology and understanding of democracy, it is difficult to overestimate the role of civil society in our reality. At the same time, I consider it very important that we continue to create institutional mechanisms so that cooperation between the Government, the political majority, and state and local self-government bodies in general becomes more institutionalized, more systematic, and as a result more effective and more constructive,” the Prime Minister noted.

He added:

“Overall, although significant progress has been recorded in democracy, state development, and economic development since the 2018 non-violent, velvet revolution, at the same time it must be acknowledged that serious problems still exist and remain among the priorities of the agenda. However, in searching for solutions to these problems, one also encounters issues that are not visible at first, second, or even third glance. In particular, this is what is commonly referred to as the clarification of fundamental concepts.”

The Prime Minister noted that the biggest criticism addressed to his Government and the political majority since taking office in 2018 is that, although justice was one of the key points of the revolutionary agenda, they have not yet achieved results in the field of justice that could be considered good or satisfactory.

“There is truth in this, but when we try to understand the problem, we encounter at first glance a very simple question: what is justice, and what is justice administration? It turns out that there is no unified understanding of this issue. Moreover, there are significant ideological and perspectival differences not only at the general level, but also within professional groups. For example, lawyers consider justice one thing, politicians another, economic actors a third, and citizens a fourth. In general, there are two sides to justice, and usually one wins while the other loses. How can we ensure that both the loser and the winner accept that what happened is justice and justice administration? While studying this issue, I have come to the conclusion that one of the most important problems here is the organic nature of processes and institutions in terms of their connection with the source of power the people,” the Prime Minister said.

According to him, under the current system, Armenia will never have a genuine sense of justice and justice administration, because the judicial and justice systems largely lack an organic connection with the highest source of power the people. This issue is one of the most important that must be resolved in the near future through the adoption of a new Constitution.

“Because in Armenia, justice and justice administration are largely governed by institutions that are isolated, that do not have an organic connection with the people, and that do not have a sufficient level of accountability and responsibility before the people, who are the highest bearer of power. I have come to the conclusion for myself that justice and justice administration is compliance with the Constitution and laws. But what should we do in cases when the Constitution itself does not have an organic connection with the highest source of power? In that case, no matter what you do, there will be no sense of justice and justice administration, because the Constitution must be an expression of the free will of the people. And we must admit that we do not have such a Constitution and, unfortunately, we have never had one. And when the source from which justice and justice administration formally derive has a break with the people, this mechanism can never be perceived by the people as justice and justice administration,” he said.

“I am not saying this as the Prime Minister of Armenia; I am saying this as a citizen of the Republic of Armenia, because I myself do not have a sense of justice and justice administration in Armenia in institutional terms, and this is a fundamental problem that we must solve,” the Prime Minister elaborated. He added that in this regard, the Armenian authorities emphasize cooperation with the European Union. He noted that during recent meetings at the European Court of Human Rights, he stressed that the task of the Armenian authorities is not to conceal existing problems or to present everything as if everything is fine.

“On the contrary, the key purpose of our cooperation with a number of European and international institutions is to have certain mechanisms for correcting possible mistakes, because if we proceed from the assumption that we must reach a situation where we do not make mistakes, that is not correct, because everyone makes mistakes. Therefore, we should not set the goal of not making mistakes, because if we do, we close our path forward. This is our understanding: we must work not to make mistakes, we must do everything not to make mistakes, but we must understand that we will make mistakes. The difference is that we must ensure that these mistakes are as minor as possible, and that there are mechanisms to correct them. This is our operational approach,” he said.

Pashinyan also addressed opinions that the Government still reacts defensively to proposals made by civil society. “I understand that emphasis, but I do not agree that the Government is some kind of amorphous body that must obediently implement whatever civil society says. Then let us switch roles let you govern, and we will come and make proposals. But I am not saying that the Government should reject everything either. What I am saying is that there must be debate, because what is adopted without debate is, from the outset, wrong,” Pashinyan said.