Child protection in Armenia

Abstract

This study aims to identify the child rights violations in Armenia and the correlation between poverty and those violations. The study will address the causes of child rights violations and child abuse in Armenia and will identify child’s rights violation cases in 2013 in the selected communities. The sample size represents Aparan city in Aragatsotn Marz with its 19 communities. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. The study was developed based on the data collected through three types of data collection instruments; review of child rights violation cases recorded by the Guardianship and Trusteeship Committees of the selected 20 communities, group discussions with Community Mobilisers who work for an NGO in those 20 communities and expert interviews. The analysis of the collected data allowed partially accepting the hypothesis that, the higher the poverty rate the higher the child rights violations in Armenia. Poverty was identified as a major cause of child rights violations in Armenia. But it was also identified that besides poverty there are also other causes such as public awareness, lack of parental and household management skills, parents’ indifference, due to which the rights of children were violated in Armenia.