Committee on the Rights of the Child

List of issues in relation to the combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of Armenia *

1.The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information,of 10,700 words maximum, by 15 June 2024. The Committee may take up all aspects of children’s rights set out in the Convention during the dialogue with the State party.

Part I

2.Please explain the measures taken or envisaged:

(a)To implement the existing Law on the Rights of the Child and adopt the draft legal package in the area of children’s rights, child protection and social assistance, ensuring that they are in full conformity with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and include enforcement mechanisms;

(b)To adopt a comprehensive programme on the protection of child rights in accordance with the 2023 amendments to the Law on the Rights of the Child and based on the assessment of the implementation of the Strategic Programme for Protection of the Rights of the Child for 2017–2021;

(c)To ensure coordination and cooperation among government institutions to implement the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto at the national, regional and local levels, including by strengthening the National Commission for the Protection of the Rights of the Child and bodies responsible for coordination at the regional and local levels by providing them with adequate and specific human, technical and financial resources;

(d)To earmark sufficient specifically targeted budgetary resources for the implementation of the rights of children, in particular of those in marginalized and disadvantaged situations, and to increase public spending on social sectors;

(e)To establish a comprehensive data-collection system that disaggregates data by age, sex, disability, nationality, ethnic origin, migration status and other categories, which covers all areas under the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto, including by strengthening the “Manuk” Information-Analytical System for data on children in difficult life situations, which could be used for policy decisions;

(f)To provide the Office of the Human Rights Defender, in particular its Child Protection Unit, with sufficient human, technical and financial resources;

(g)To establish legal accountability for business enterprises and their subsidiaries that operate in or are managed from the State party to ensure that their operations are in line with the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto.

3.Please provide information on the efforts made to amend the Family Code, which allows the marriage of persons 16 years of age with the permission of their parents.

4.Please explain the measures taken:

(a)To adopt a comprehensive anti-discrimination law that covers all elements enshrined in article 2 of the Convention and to address discrimination against girls, children with disabilities, asylum-seeking and refugee children, children who belong to ethnic and religious minority groups and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children;

(b)To implement article 37 of the Constitution, the Family Code and other laws providing for the principle of the best interests of the child and to ensure that the right of children to have their best interests taken as a primary consideration is consistently interpreted and applied in all legislative, administrative and judicial proceedings and decisions;

(c)To implement the constitutional amendments of 2015 and the laws that provide for children’s right to be heard, including for medical interventions, as well as to ensure the effective participation of children in decision-making on matters concerning them and to ensure the effectiveness of student councils;

(d)To guarantee access to justice and remedies for children, including for those whose rights have been violated while in institutional care.

5.Please describe the measures taken:

(a)To provide children with access to information from a variety of sources, including online sources, while protecting them from content that is harmful to their well‑being and guaranteeing children’s right to privacy;

(b)To guarantee children’s right to freedom of assembly and association and ensure that those involved in protests are not subjected to excessive use of force by the law enforcement authorities.

6.Please explain the measures taken:

(a)To combat the practice of corporal punishment of children, especially in the family, and ensure implementation of the legislation that addresses it;

(b)To strengthen the child protection system and expand Barnahus (children’s house) facilities to the entire country by ensuring multidisciplinary child- and gender-friendly investigations that avoid repetitive interviews and re-traumatization of the child in cross‑examination, and to strengthen trauma-focused therapy and other support services for children who are victims of violence, in particular sexual violence;

(c)To train professionals working with and for child victims and witnesses of violence;

(d)To combat sexual exploitation and abuse of children by implementing the relevant legislation, ensuring that victims are not stigmatized and ensuring reporting and the investigation of such crimes and the punishment of perpetrators;

(e)To combat the harmful practice of child marriage within the Yezidi community.

7.Please provide information on measures taken or envisaged:

(a)To support the rights of children to a family environment and to strengthen social protection services in order to provide support and assistance to keep families together;

(b)To further decrease the levels of institutionalization of children, in particular of children with disabilities, promote their social integration and prioritize family-based care;

(c)To ensure independent monitoring of alternative care settings, in particular residential care institutions, in a regular and systematic manner;

(d)To improve the quality of care in alternative care settings, including foster care, by training personnel and establishing regulations on the rights of children, and to ensure periodic reviews of placements;

(e)To strengthen the support for independent living for children leaving care, including access to housing;

(f)To create a centralized system for review of the adoption process and establish clear criteria and procedures for the selection of adoptive parents and a system for monitoring each step of the adoption process by an independent body.

8.Please explain the measures taken or envisaged:

(a)To adopt a human rights-based approach to disability and address the increased institutionalization of children with disabilities by developing community-based support for children with disabilities;

(b)To combat stigmatization of and discrimination against children with disabilities and to increase efforts for early identification and intervention;

(c)To provide children with disabilities with inclusive education in mainstream schools by ensuring reasonable accommodation and sufficient support, including accessible school buildings and facilities and accessible school material and equipment.

9.Please describe the measures taken or envisaged:

(a)To further reduce neonatal mortality by providing equitable access to health care during pregnancy and delivery, including access to emergency obstetric care and care for the newborn during the neonatal period, especially in rural areas;

(b)To reduce out-of-pocket expenditure for health-care services and to accelerate the transition to a universal health insurance system across the country to guarantee access to affordable health care for all segments of the population, including in rural areas;

(c)To implement the concept paper on improving child nutrition for 2015–2020 and to address both malnutrition and obesity among children;

(d)To address increasing mental health challenges among children, especially children from Nagorno-Karabakh, by strengthening the availability and quality of psychological and psychiatric services;

(e)To prevent drug and alcohol abuse by children;

(f)To strengthen its efforts to combat poverty among children and build the capacity and coverage of social workers throughout the country.

10.Please describe the measures taken:

(a)To improve the school infrastructure, including access to heating, safe water and sanitation, especially in rural areas;

(b)To address the deteriorating levels of school enrolment and attendance, especially in upper secondary education, in particular of children from Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the accessibility and availability of pre-school education in rural areas;

(c)To improve the quality of education, including by improving teacher training and establishing strict qualification requirements for those working as teachers;

(d)To address bullying and peer-on-peer violence in schools.

11.Please inform the Committee about efforts made:

(a)To ensure that asylum-seeking and stateless children are provided with legal aid at all stages of the asylum and stateless determination procedures and that guardians are appointed for unaccompanied and separated asylum-seeking or stateless children;

(b)To further strengthen its efforts to integrate refugee children from Nagorno‑Karabakh, including in the education system, and to provide them with all necessary support, in particular psychological support.

12.Please provide information on the measures taken:

(a)To provide national minorities with opportunities to study in their mother tongue to the extent possible and to learn about their culture and history;

(b)To ensure that labour legislation and practices comply with article 32 of the Convention, including through effective implementation of existing laws and by strengthening labour inspectorates and establishing child labour reporting mechanisms;

(c)To prohibit the presence of the State party’s armed forces in schools located in border areas, in line with the Safe Schools Declaration endorsed by the State party.

13.Please explain measures taken to implement the new Criminal Procedure Code, which provides certain legal safeguards for children who come into contact with the law, including non-custodial sentences. Please also inform the Committee about the efforts made to establish a separate child justice system with trained judges, investigators, prosecutors and police officers.

14.With reference to the Committee’s concluding observations on the State party’s initial report on the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, please explain the measures taken:

(a)To establish effective mechanisms to identify, detect and monitor children in vulnerable situations who are at risk of becoming victims of the offences under the Optional Protocol;

(b)Not to subject children below the age of 18 to administrative or other types of liability for their involvement in prostitution and provide them with adequate protection and assistance.

15.With reference to the Committee’s concluding observations on the State party’s initial report on the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, please describe the measures taken by the State party:

(a)To exclude military training from the curriculum of general schools and take measures to ban military training that includes the use of firearms and combat training for children under the age of 18 in military schools;

(b)To criminalize the recruitment of children under the age of 18 into the armed forces and their use in hostilities by the State armed forces;

(c)To put in place mechanisms to identify, at an early stage, children among refugees and asylum seekers coming from countries where there are or have been armed conflicts who may have been recruited or used in hostilities and to provide them with rehabilitation services.

Part II

16.The Committee invites the State party to provide a brief update, of no more than three pages, on the information set out in its report with regard to the following:

(a)New bills or laws, and their respective regulations;

(b)New institutions and their mandates or institutional reforms;

(c)Recently introduced policies, programmes and action plans and their scope and financing;

(d)Recent ratifications of human rights instruments.

Part III

Data, statistics and other information

17.Please provide consolidated information for the past three years on the budget lines regarding children and social sectors, indicating the percentage of each budget line in terms of the total national budget and the gross national product. Please also provide information on the geographic allocation of those resources.

18.Please provide updated statistical data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, geographic location and socioeconomic status, on the following:

(a)Cases of abuse and violence perpetrated against children, including torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, all forms of corporal punishment, sexual abuse in and outside the home, domestic violence, bullying and online sexual violence and abuse, as well as prosecutions and sentences handed down in the State party in such cases;

(b)Cases of child marriages allowed under the exception to the marriage age under the Family Code, including within the Yezidi community;

(c)Cases of adolescent pregnancy;

(d)Stateless children;

(e)Asylum-seeking, refugee, internally displaced and migrant children;

(f)Working children, including in the informal sector;

(g)Children in street situations;

(h)Children living in poverty;

(i)Children in military schools.

19.Please provide data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and geographic location, on children deprived of a family environment who are or who have been:

(a)Separated from their families, including the duration of the separation;

(b)Placed in institutions, including the number of institutions and the number of children in each institution;

(c)Placed with foster families;

(d)Available for adoption;

(e)Adopted domestically, through intercountry adoptions, if any, including data on the receiving countries.

20.Please provide data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographic location, on the number of children with disabilities who are or who have been:

(a)Living with their families;

(b)Living in institutions;

(c)Attending regular primary schools;

(d)Attending regular secondary schools;

(e)Attending special schools;

(f)Out of school;

(g)Abandoned by their families.

21.Please provide data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic and national origin, geographic location and socioeconomic status, on children in conflict with the law who have been:

(a)Arrested;

(b)Referred to diversion programmes;

(c)Held in pretrial detention;

(d)Serving a sentence in detention, including the length of the sentence.

22.Please provide information on how a children’s rights-based approach is integrated into the planning, implementation and monitoring of measures for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including with regard to the participation of children and data collection, and on how those measures promote the realization of children’s rights under the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto.

23.Please provide the Committee with an update of any data in the report that may have become outdated by more recent data collected or other new developments.

24.In addition, the State party may list areas affecting children that it considers to be of priority with regard to the implementation of the Convention.