Arpine Hovhannisyan, Minister of Justice of Armenia, and the Deputy Secretary General were among the speakers of the information event on implementation of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Armenia on 16 January 2017.  The Minister discussed key aspects of the reform of the judiciary, elections and penitentiary reform in her country and stressed the important support the country receives through the Action Plan.  So far, the Action Plan has attracted funding from Denmark, Switzerland, the UK, Norway, Sweden, the Human Rights Trust Fund and importantly benefits from the Programmatic Cooperation Framework with the European Union.  Additional resources are sought, in particular in order to ensure an impartial and effective judiciary, further penitentiary reform, to consolidate local democracy, to harmonise the application of human rights, including social rights and to improve the treatment of persons in police detention.