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Human rights activist Ruben Melikyan, who formerly served as Artsakh ombudsman and Armenia’s deputy justice minister, believes the Armenian judiciary has never “stooped so low”.

Speaking at a discussion “Towards Dictatorship: Backward Step on Rights” on Friday, he pointed to a methodical error in the assessment of the situation in the judicial system.

"We often say that there has never been such a bad situation. That’s not true, but there has never been such a big backslide,” the activist said.

According to him, it cannot be argued that, for instance, the judicial system of Armenia in the 1990s was better than today.

"It’s not so, but we recorded a very dynamic development. As an illustration, the electronic assignment system completely changed the things, bringing a qualitative change," he said.

Ruben Melikyan recalled that previously someone was appointed a court chairman and held that post for life, while one of the most fundamental provisions of the 2015 constitutional amendments stipulates that a court chairman can be appointed for a period of 3 years and cannot hold office more than once.

He stated the changes were aimed at building equality in relationship between judges and court chairs.

“One of its elements was the introduction of an electronic assignment system," Melikyan said.