On 16 April, the law on Civil Forfeiture of Illegal Assets was adopted in second reading by the National Assembly of Armenia. This is a major step towards strengthening the national framework for asset recovery.

The EU/CoE Partnership for Good Governance II project on “Strengthening institutional capacities to fight and prevent corruption in Armenia” directly contributed to the strengthening of the draft law by providing an expert opinion and recommendations on the draft law, addressing a set of additional questions raised by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia as well as organizing discussions with multiple stakeholders.

the law entered the National Assembly of the RA, the project had organised a workshop on 22 January with the participation of 30 representatives of the judiciary, Prosecutor’s Office, investigative bodies, Ministry of Justice, civil society organisations and other stakeholders involved in the field of transparency and fighting economic crime, as part of the participatory process for this legislative reform.

More than half of the recommendations provided by the Council of Europe were taken into account in the final version of the Law. The Project will continue supporting the process of establishing an asset recovery system in Armenia.

This support is provided in the framework of the EU/CoE Partnership for Good Governance II Project on “Strengthening institutional capacities to fight and prevent corruption in Armenia” (PGGII-ARM) which is funded jointly by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.