Final event of the "Improving Access to Justice for Children" Programme was held

First Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Artur Hovhannisyan today participated in the final event of the "Effective Co-ordination, Co-operation and Public Awareness for Improving Access to Justice for Children" Programme implemented by the Ministry of Justice and the UN Children's Fund.

In his welcome speech addressed to those attending the event, the Deputy Minister stated that it is impossible to consider the efforts made in the field of human rights protection complete without including therein the issue on the protection of the rights of children. In this context, Artur Hovhannisyan highly appreciated the existing close co-operation between the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia and partner international organisations in the field of protection of the rights of children, particularly the efforts of the UN Children's Fund in this direction.

Artur Hovhannisyan also emphasised that access to justice for children underlies a number of fundamental reforms and strategy programmes, namely the National Programme for the Protection of Children’s Rights, the Strategic Programmes for Legal and Judicial Reforms and Human Rights Protection, as well as the draft Strategy Programme for the Fight against Juvenile Delinquency.

Afterwards, representative of the Ministry of Justice Gayane Hovakimyan introduced the participants of the event to the final report for the Programme implemented in co-operation with the UN Children's Fund and the activities carried out in that direction since 2015, highlighting the establishment of the Council for Juvenile Justice which — under the co-ordination of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia — will serve for identifying the issues in the field of juvenile justice and the joint development of the programmes and strategy plans to be implemented in this field in the course of 2017.

At the end of the event, ahead of Human Rights Day, the opening ceremony of the exhibition in review entitled "Rights and opportunities for all children" and devoted to the second anniversary of the establishment of Mughdusyan Art Centre was also held. The works of the members of the Centre (paintings, ceramic art, sculptures, rug-making) were presented during the event.