Armenian Association of Arbitrators to provide citizens with more options of access to justice

The project ''Support to the judicial reform – enhancing the independence and professionalism of the judiciary in Armenia'' funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe within the framework of the Partnership for Good Governance (PGG) started in 2019. One of the important components of the project is to improve the practical application of arbitration in Armenia. Arbitration, being one of the Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods, is a way to resolve disputes outside the courts and is widely spread in the contemporary world, as it allows getting a fair settlement of disputes without irrelevant delays and expenses. The project provided support in the initial development stages of the Association of Arbitrators of Armenia and will continue its support related to promoting and extending more active application of arbitration in order to facilitate access to justice and to reduce the backlog of the cases in the courts.

“The Council of Europe within its project supported the creation of an Armenian Association of Arbitrators in 2018”, said Aram Orbelyan, the President of the Association of Arbitrators of Armenia. He expressed his gratitude to a consistent support of the project in a range of activities to develop this field in Armenia. 

He told that a possibility of developing arbitration in order to provide citizens with alternative methods of access to justice has been discussed in Armenia since 2010, yet the institutional basis for arbitration has been already in effect for about 20 years.

“Despite the fact that citizens traditionally have a certain distrust in the court, their credibility towards the court is still higher than it is towards arbitration”, he said. “The reason for such an attitude is an irrational fear of the unknown and misunderstanding concerning the role of arbitration”.

Meanwhile, Orbelyan told that certain types of disputes can be better provided by specialised judges and be resolved by arbitration. “These makes arbitration a standard and advantageous method for resolving disputes, where the arbitrators’ technical expertises are particularly valued”, said Orbelyan. “For example, arbitration concerns the cases when the parties would like to have a specialized judge, and we cannot have super specialized judges in the courts. Yet in such particular cases, an arbitrator is appointed, based on the specific specialization of a given person. That is, if we have a dispute about the quality of asphalt, we will try to hire a person who understands the terminology relevant to the case”.

He told that the Association takes measures to raise awareness about the role of arbitration both for the newly recruited arbitrators and for the claimers. Upon completing an initial stage of development, the Association is planning to conduct trainings to upgrade the skills of the members and award them with credentials, which will lend credibility to the arbitration”.

“Several key documents have been adopted in the framework of the creation of the Association”, said Aida Avanessian, the Chairperson of the Board of the Association.  

“We have developed and adopted the rules of ethics for arbitrators, as well as the standard rules for arbitration”, she said. “The process of arbitration is governed by a set of rules, so we have prepared a standard set of rules that can be used by different arbitrators’ centres or individual arbitrators. It is a standard form and can be used and developed to match each centres’ different needs and circumstances”. 

Moreover, during the lockdown caused by the COVID-19, ten online training videos on different subjects were developed and released in partnership with the Council of Europe, with the aim to encourage and increase the credibility to arbitration.

According to Avanessian, currently there is lack of understanding and knowledge as arbitration is not developed in Armenia to the extend that it should as a means of alternative settlement of dispute. “ten online sessions aim to provide comprehensive information about arbitration and teach how to be an arbitrator”, said Avanessian.

She told that the Association has 13 members at the moment. “We are in the process of developing more recruitment procedures, in order to have more arbitrators”, said Avanessian. “The association is open for individual arbitrators as well as arbitration centres. This work is in progress”.

The mission of the Association can be well promoted through the website, which has been launched with the help of the project. “The website is under development and will provide comprehensive information about arbitrators as well as arbitration centres”, concluded Avanessian.