OSCE facilitates consolidation workshop on Regulatory Reform Roadmap for Armenia

The finalization of a Regulatory Reform Roadmap for Armenia was the focus of a workshop co-organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), the Ministry of Justice of Armenia and the OSCE Office in Yerevan on 27 and 28 May 2016 in Tsaghkadzor, Armenia.

The workshop provided an opportunity for participants from the executive branch, the legislature, civil society and international organizations to exchange views on how to improve the overall process of lawmaking in the country. Topics discussed included policy-making and legislative planning, public consultations and regulatory impact assessment, as well as monitoring and evaluation of legislation.

The purpose of the workshop was to discuss recommendations for reform from previous thematic lawmaking workshops, conducted in Armenia in 2015, and from OSCE/ODIHR’s 2014 report on the “Comprehensive Assessment of the Legislative Procedure in Armenia”. These recommendations were consolidated in a draft Regulatory Reform Roadmap with concrete action points in early 2016, and this draft provided a basis for workshop discussions.

"The recommendations in the draft Regulatory Reform Roadmap focus on identifying workable solutions and were developed by key Armenian stakeholders during a series of discussions," said Alice Thomas, Chief of ODIHR’s Legislative Support Unit. "The draft Roadmap thus constitutes a home-grown plan for action to address weaknesses identified in the Armenian lawmaking system during discussions at our 2015 workshops."

Arsen Mkrtchyan, First Deputy Minister of Justice of Armenia, said: "We have already begun initiating reforms as indicated in the draft Roadmap. This workshop will help us finalize this document, which will be very useful in helping us plan and implement additional reform processes to make our legislative process less burdensome and more planned, transparent, and participatory."

The consolidating workshop begins the final stage of the process of drafting a Regulatory Reform Roadmap for Armenia, as envisaged by the Memorandum of Understanding signed between OSCE/ODIHR and the Ministry of Justice in 2014. Once ready, the Roadmap will form the basis for future reforms of the legislative process in the country.