TRANSLATION
CENTRE

About Us

Background

To implement actions for compliance of laws, facilitate co-operation with international organisations, become integrated into the global market, enhance and strengthen economic relations and ensure accessibility of the laws of the Republic of Armenia for foreign investors in a language that is widely used at the international level — arising from the agenda for large-scale reforms under implementation in the country, the Government of the Republic of Armenia decided to establish an institution that specifically specialises in the translation of laws and that would be responsible for high-quality and consistent translation of legal acts, maintenance of translated legal acts and update of those translated legal acts upon request.

Prior to the establishment of the Translation Centre, the expertise and working styles of translation centres operating within all EU member states, centres for the co-ordination of translations (responsible for the translations of national legislations), EU Directorate-General for Translation (responsible for the translation of EC legislation in all state languages of EU member states), Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union ( responsible for the translation of standards, technical regulations, quasi-legal acts and other key documents within the framework of the EU), European Parliament Translation Centre (responsible for the translation of packages of draft laws), as well as, in general, worldwide translation centres, were studied with the help of the EU technical assistance programme and for the purpose of performing large-scale translations of laws within the scope of accession to the EU, At the same time, the translation market, as well as the current situation and problems in regard to translations being performed at the state level in Armenia were studied.

This versatile and comprehensive study helped lead to the development of the working model of the Translation Centre (working methodology, quality assurance mechanisms, structure, relationship of workers performing the work they are specialised in, average daily performance, etc.) based on international standards, and on 22 February 2008, the Government of the Republic of Armenia adopted Decision N163-N of the Government on establishing the "Translation Centre of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia" State Non-Commercial Organisation.

Major Developments

The Translation Centre was initially established for performing translations with the Armenian-English translation language pair (the Centre was only translating the legal acts of the Republic of Armenia and the European Union).

In 2010, taking into consideration the demand of state bodies for the translation of other documents (draft legal acts, major reports, etc.), amendments were made to the Statute of the Translation Centre, expanding the types of documents that are submitted for translation.

Afterwards, in 2013, within the framework of co-operation with the Customs Union, the demand for the Russian-Armenian translation language pair drastically increased in Armenia, and upon Decision No 245-N of the Government of the Republic of Armenia of 13 March 2014, amendments and supplements were made to the Statute of the Translation Centre with regard to translation language pair and the type of documents being submitted for translation.

Currently, translations of the legal acts of the Republic of Armenia, the Eurasian Economic Union and the Customs Union; the National Reports of the Republic of Armenia; the documents that state bodies of the Republic of Armenia submit to international organisations and those that international organisations submit to the bodies of the Republic of Armenia; judicial acts and related documents within the framework of the bilateral relations of the Republic of Armenia with other states; court judgments and other major documents of the European Court of Human Rights with regard to the Republic of Armenia and other assigned major documents are reserved for the Translation Centre.

Overview of Tasks Organisation

At the Translation Centre, translation tasks are organised through a quality assurance methodology and tools developed on the basis of the requirements set under the NIS EN 15038 "Translation services: Requirements for translation services" standard.