First Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia receives expert of the United Nations Children's Fund Reidar Hjermann

Ahead of Child Protection Day, First Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Arsen Mkrtchyan today received representatives of the United Nations Children's Fund Hayk Khemchyan, George Abadjian and expert, former Children's Ombudsman of Norway Reidar Hjermann, who is in Yerevan within the framework of an assessment visit, the purpose of which is to assess the problems of violence against children and to recommend response mechanisms to relevant competent structures.

During the meeting, the parties touched upon a number of issues connected with the system of children's rights, including improvement of access to justice for children at the legislative level, the activities of specialised structures, accessibility of services and the introduction and development of mechanisms for monitoring cases of violations of children's rights.

The First Deputy Minister of Justice emphasised that the legislative initiatives of the Ministry especially focus on the introduction of mechanisms that serve the best interest of a child’s right protection. In that context, Arsen Mkrtchyan underscored the activities aimed at endowing judges with new tools and setting special procedures for proceedings in the Civil Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia. Among the amendments to be made to the Family Code of the Republic of Armenia, the First Deputy Minister also attached importance to the introduction of the institute of guardianship, which is based on the idea of raising a child in a family.

Arsen Mkrtchyan touched upon the activities of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and attached importance to the recommendations made in the Report of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and expressed willingness to introduce the best mechanisms included in the recommendations.

At the end of the meeting, Reidar Hjermann also expressed willingness to put in his efforts to make protection of the rights of children in Armenia stronger and more reliable.