Council for Juvenile Justice holds inter-agency meeting
26/12/2024
Under the chairmanship of Deputy Minister of Justice Anna Karapetyan, a regular meeting of the Inter-Agency Council for Juvenile Justice was held with the participation of Director of the "Legal Education and Rehabilitation Programmes Implementation Centre" SNCO Hayk Sanoyan, Co-ordinator of the Juvenile Justice Programme of UNICEF Victoria Ohanyan, as well as representatives of state bodies and non-governmental organisations. Anna Karapetyan welcomed the participants of the meeting and emphasised that the Council ensures effective interaction between state and non-governmental institutions, with the aim of identifying the problems in the area of protection of the rights of minors, ensuring the best interests of the child, increasing access to justice for children, as well as promoting inter-agency co-operation.
During the meeting, the activities carried out by the Inter-Agency Council for Juvenile Justice in 2024 were presented, and the processes of creation, complete establishment and implementation of the Barnahus model in Armenia, as well as the activities of the inter-agency working group set up under the Council were touched upon. The Council representatives also attached importance to contribution of active efforts and co-operation aimed at fulfilling international obligations in the sector, including the efforts aimed at implementing the concluding observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
At the end of the meeting, the Deputy Minister expressed gratitude to the participants for their effective and systemic co-operation, predetermining the topics on the agenda for the upcoming meeting, including: recording the existing gaps and problems in the field, developing priority actions aimed at implementing the recommendations submitted by international monitoring bodies, effectively engaging psychologists in criminal procedure processes, as well as improving and expanding the use of the Barnahus model.
