In late 2019, in the wake of a popular democratic uprising that brought into power Armenia’s current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his reformist government, the country launched a constitutional reform process. The reform aims to affect a broad range of changes in the country’s judicial and oversight bodies. Recognizing International IDEA’s global expertise and experience in supporting constitution makers across the globe, Armenia’s State Constitutional Reform Commission invited the Institute to provide tailored comparative constitutional expertise to the commission throughout its areas of work.
Over the course of 2020, the Institute combined its in-house experts and external network of international constitution-making advisors to provide thematic expertise to the Constitutional Reform Commission. These advisors supported the commission with comparative analysis and advice on issues related to constitutional design and judicial review processes, constitutional amendment procedures and other issues. International IDEA included comparative practices by involving constitutional law practitioners from other Eastern European countries. The work came to an abrupt halt in September when fighting broke out with neighbouring Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The assistance is expected to continue once the commission resumes its work. However, the success of the constitutional reform will greatly depend on the result of the ongoing domestic political turbulence, which started after the hostilities ended.
Photo: Harout Arabian.