A great number of representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the “Penitentiary Medical Centre” SNCO, the office of the Human Rights Ombudsperson, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Department for the Execution of Judgments and Decisions of the Office of Representation of Armenia before the ECtHR, experts of the Observer’s Group Implementing Civic Supervision in the Penitentiary Institutions and members of civil society organisations enhanced their knowledge on the standards of Council of Europe and best practices in the selected member- states on complaints procedures within the penitentiary system.

The standards of the Council of Europe and best practices in the selected member- states on complaints procedures within the penitentiary system were presented during the workshop that was held on 10 November 2021 in on-line format.

It was empathized during the workshop and agreed by the participants that prisoners must have ample opportunity to make complaints on various grounds and that the procedures should be available both, within and outside the prison system. There was also a discussion on jurisdiction of administrative courts and first instance that allowed to clarify the terminology and procedural aspects of the newly developed draft Laws on amendments to the Code of Administrative Procedure, the Criminal Procedure Code, and the Penitentiary Code of Armenia.

Moreover, it was agreed that it is important to clarify the regulations related to the complaints on the grounds of provision and the quality of healthcare in the penitentiary institutions, in order to exclude any risks that such complaints are left out of the scope of the proposed legal regulations.

The workshop took place in online format on 10 November within the framework of the project “Enhancing health care and human rights protection in prisons in Armenia” implemented by the Council of Europe and financed by the Action Plan for Armenia 2019 - 2022.