Final draft constitutional amendments to be ready in July, chapter on form of governance already debated
The Commission on Constitutional Reforms under Armenian President already discussed the chapters on the forms of state governance and Chapter 8 concerning judicial power, Commission member, constitutional law expert Vardan Poghosyan said in an interview with Pastinfo news agency.
The preliminary draft will be submitted soon to the working group of the Venice Commission, he said.
“We plan to hold discussions on July 1-2 with the working group of the Venice Commission, during which we will touch upon the minor amendments made in the first three chapters and then we will start to examine carefully the chapters on the forms of governance and judicial branch,” Poghosyan said.
Prior to that, several members of the Commission will attend debates in Germany to discuss the draft of reforms of Armenia’s Constitution with the participation of German experts on constitutional law.
He reminded the correspondent that at discussions held in Paris in May with the participation of Venice Commission, they examined the first three chapters of the draft Constitution. “These are “The Foundations of Constitutional Order” and “Fundamental Human and Civil Rights”. The third chapter has the heading “Main Goals of Legislative Guarantees and the State Policy in Social, Economic and Cultural Sphere,” he clarified.
V. Poghosyan said that besides, work is underway on other chapters of the draft amendments to the Constitution of Armenia. In his opinion, the final version of the draft will be ready in July.
We would remind you that the draft concept of the constitutional reforms of Armenia proposes a transition to the parliamentary model of governance. The draft was discussed for several months, until October 15, 2014 when the draft concept on the constitutional reforms was published, along with an opinion of the Venice Commission in English and its unofficial Armenian translation.
The head of Commission on Constitutional Reforms, chairman of Armenia’s Constitutional Court Gagik Harutyunyan said earlier that a referendum on constitutional reforms in Armenia will not take place until 2016.