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The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted on Monday its annual report taking stock of its monitoring activities in 2020 and making a series of assessments of the progress of the countries subject to the monitoring procedure or engaged in post-monitoring dialogue.

The adopted resolution, based on a report by Michael Aastrup Jensen (Denmark, ALDE), welcomes positive developments and progress made, and expresses concern at remaining shortcomings in each of the countries concerned, including Armenia, as well as making specific recommendations. The report was adopted with 70 votes in favour, 22 against and 18 abstentions.

According to the adopted text, the Assembly welcomes the progress in the fight against corruption in Armenia reflected by the improvement in the ranking established by the NGO Transparency International, the adoption of the 2020-2022 strategy to reform police forces, which foresees creating a new Ministry of Interior responsible for law enforcement agencies, the declared intention of the Armenian National Assembly to increase the transparency of political financing, and the ratification of Lanzarote Convention. 

At the same time, the Assembly expresses its concern about the rapid changes in the composition of the Constitutional Court without the opinion of the Venice Commission being fully taken into account. 

The assembly calls to continue pursuing the democratic path it has chosen, and to solve the political crisis that followed the signature of the trilateral statement within the framework of a democratic state that respects the rule of law. 

With regard to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Assembly calls on all parties involved to refrain from inflammatory rhetoric hindering political dialogue, Armenia and Azerbaijan to implement as soon as possible the provisions of the trilateral statement related to humanitarian issues, all parties involved to immediately put in action the exchange of prisoners of war and bodies, to respect cultural heritage; it invites the Monitoring Committee to explore avenues to contribute at parliamentary level to an atmosphere conducive to the peace process. The Assembly expresses its serious concern about reports and allegations of violations of humanitarian and human rights law by all sides during this conflict and allegations of degradations to some religious sites and monuments, as well as destruction of private property, and expects these reports to be fully investigated and any violations to be remedied and the perpetrators prosecuted.