On June 10-11 Civil Society Institute (CSI) in cooperation with the State Probation Service of the Ministry of Justice of RA organized a workshop on “The Activities of the State Probation Service”. The representatives of the Ministry of Justice, judges, prosecutors and probation officers participated in the workshop.

The workshop was aimed to present main features, problems and functions of the Probation Service prescribed by law.

During the workshop CSI introduced its activities in the field of the support of the concept of probation and restorative justice in Armenia, the film about the main functions of the Probation Service was presented.

The second half of the meeting was dedicated to the most controversial issues of the legislation and respective practice. In particular were discussed: •

Legislative issues connected to replacement of the fine with public work, •

The features and application of the judicial decisions about the conditional non-application of punishment, •

The application of the limitation of the indictment and clarification of competent authorities, •

The legal issues connected with the delay of the punishment in case of illness of the convict and the issue of changing the status of the convict.

Participants discussed contradictory provisions on terms and conditions of the enforcement of the punishment in the form of fine and community service, issues related to clarification of the legal definitions of the term "permanent residence", "grave breach" of the conditions etc.

At the end of the meeting the representative of the Ministry of Justice assured that all the concerns and suggested solutions would be brought to the attention of the Minister of Justice and respective actions would follow.

The participants make an initiative to arrange such meetings on a regular basis, especially now, when there is no precise mechanisms of cooperation between the Probation Service and other agencies responsible for administration of justice.

“It's never the big things that bring great ideas down. The idea of Probation is a very big one and we should not let it drown in a sea of little things”, - indicated CSI Human Rights officer at the end of the meeting referring to the cooperation between the concerned agencies.

 Workshop on the Probation service