Child Rights Situation 5 1 0 2 n, a v Analysis: Armenia e r e Y Child Rights Situation Analysis: Armenia Yerevan 2015 TABLE OF CONTENT LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 LIST OF ACRONYMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 CHAPTER 1. METHODOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 CHAPTER 2. COUNTRY CONTEXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 2 .1 POPULATION AND DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 2 .2 DEVELOPMENT TRENDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 CHAPTER 3. ANALYSIS OF THE UNCRC RIGHTS SITUATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 3 .1 CHILD RIGHTS GOVERNANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 3 .1 .1 General Measures of Implementation: Legal Reforms and Fulfilment of the Rights of the Child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 3 .1 .2 Civil Rights and Freedoms: Right to Registration, 3 .1 .3 Child Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 3 .2 CHILD PROTECTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 3 .2 .1 Child Protection Including the Family Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 3 .2 .2 Child Protection: Special Protection Means . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 3 .3 RIGHTS TO EDUCATION AND CULTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 3 .3 .1 The Right of the Child to Preschool Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 3 .3 .2 The Right of the Child to School Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 3 .3 .3 Education of Children in Vulnerable Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 3 .3 .4 Children’s Participation in Cultural Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 3 .3 .5 The Right of Children to Receive Primary and Secondary Vocational Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 3 .3 .6 Funding of Educational Programmes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 3 .4 RIGHTS TO HEALTH AND WELFARE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 3 .4 .1 Maternal Health: Access and Quality of Reproductive Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 3 .4 .2 Child (6-18) Health and Nutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 3 .4 .3 School Health and Nutrition (SHN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 3 .4 .4 Health of Children with Special Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 3 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The reporting Clusters of UNCRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Table 2 : The dynamics of child poverty in 2008-2013 (by their percentage rate) . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Table 3: Number of Crimes Against Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Table 4: Number of preschool education establishments and the children attending . . . . . . . . . 32 4 LIST OF ACRONYMS ADHS Armenian Demographic and Health Survey BBP Basic Benefit Package CRC Child Rights Convention CRSA Child Rights Situation Analysis ECD Early Childhood Development GDP Gross Domestic Product MES Ministry of Education and Science MLSI Ministry of Labor and Social Issues MOD Ministry of Defense MOE Ministry of Education and Science MOH Ministry of Health NCD Non-communicable diseases NCPCR National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights NGO Non Governmental Organization NSS National Statistical Service PHC Primary Health Care PIU Project Implementation Unit PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers RA Republic of Armenia RA CC Republic of Armenia Criminal Code RA CPC Republic of Armenia Criminal Procedure Code RA FC Republic of Armenia Family Code SCI Save the Children International SMS State Migration Service UN United Nations UNCRC United Nations Child Rights Convention UNDAF United Nations Development Assistance Framework UNFPA United Nations Population Fund UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In all countries of the world in which Save the Children operates, children face many problems . To develop and deliver need based programs, there was a need to implement a Child Rights Situational Analysis (CRSA) in Armenia . A CRSA is an in-depth description of the extent to which children’s rights are being exercised and an analysis of the obstacles to, and enablers of, their realization . The aim of CRSA is to gather sufficient information to produce a ‘good enough’ analysis to inform strategic decision-making. The methodology of the assessment included (a) a review of secondary data, and (b) meetings with key informants to gather data from primary sources. CRSA reviewed the following UNCRC rights: Child Rights Governance; Child Protection; Rights to Education and Culture; Rights to Health and Welfare . Below is the summary of the main findings. Child Rights Governance: The study revealed that the Republic of Armenia has ratified the key international treaties concerning the rights of the child; however, a few very important optional protocols still remain not ratified. At the same time, the newly adopted draft laws on the rights of the child are not required to be assessed according to RA legislation, in contrary to the legislative requirement to assess the impact of legal acts in a number of other fields. Regarding the RA Law on the Rights of the Child, the activities for the protection of the rights of the child are carried out in the manner and timeframe foreseen by the annual programmes, however, the assessment showed that these programmes have a lot of shortcomings . Child Protection: According to the results of the study, RA legislation associated with protecting the child from an insult, absence of care, indifference or rude treatment is not clear: in particular (a) the description of these phenomena and a struggle against them are still in the state of drafting; (b) not all incidents of violence are punishable under criminal law in the RA, (c) any manifestation of violence against the child is conditioned by the fact that the child is either not perceived or is partially perceived as an individual by the society, (d) children are still subjected to physical and psychological violence as methods of upbringing, (e) there is no separate legal act or a single and comprehensive document on physical and psychological integration of children and their social reintegration, (f) so far there is no legislation in the RA on juvenile justice . Rights to Education and Culture: The assessment showed that school age children enjoy the opportunity to attend general schools . The study revealed vulnerability of inclusive schools which are severely underequipped in terms of their physical conditions . The access to Early Childhood Development (ECD) institutions in general is quite low . In urban communities it is higher than in rural communities, as in rural communities children are mostly deprived of the opportunity to attend ECDs. Moreover, there is a lack of adjusted preschool centres for disabled children at preschool age . Rights to Health and Welfare: According to the findings of the assessment, the citizens of RA have access to health. Health services are paid for except for children under the age of 7 and certain groups of people . However, children and adults with disabilities face barriers in accessing the health and rehabilitation services they need in many settings, and particularly in rural areas . Nevertheless, there are different medical and social support programs provided by the State for free for children with special needs . 6 INTRODUCTION Protection of children’s rights and provision of a safe and non-violent environment for children are of high priority for every country . Therefore the issues concerning child abuse, neglect, violence and exploitation are prioritized by state and key action takers, like Save the Children, who implement various programmatic interventions and contribute to the improvement of the resources and policies . Current report explores the child rights situation in Armenia using the methodology of Child Rights Situational Analysis. A CRSA is an analysis of the situation of children and their rights. It also identifies obstructions that may their rights being realised . The CRSA is informed by a range of perspectives, including those of children and young people. It looks at the trends in, and causes of, child rights issues, the key stakeholders involved, and the policies, programs and services already in place to prevent and respond to them . While the principal use of a CRSA remains as an input into strategic planning, CRSAs potentially have a significant value to other aspects of work, such as feeding into our program planning processes, coordinating our work with partners, governments, donors and other civil society actors, supporting policy design and implementation at various levels of the country, etc . One of the challenges in child rights protection in Armenia was and in some terms remains the economic situation and poverty. The economy of the Republic of Armenia collapsed within the first years of the independence . It was followed by the subsidence of the currency system and decline in the conditions of the foreign trade with countries of the former Soviet Union . Nevertheless, the most devastating consequences were widespread impoverishment of the population and income inequality . Later on, in 1994‐2005 the economy of Armenia experienced drastic structural shifts . High economic growth has been the main contributor towards the decline of poverty, which decreased from 55 .1% in 1999 to 29 .8% in 2005. However, from 2008 onwards, due to the influence of global economic crises, the economy of the RA has encountered a radical decline, increasing the poverty rate up to 32% in 2013 . The child rights situation has worsened during recent years . According to 2013 state statistics, 3 .3% of children in Armenia live in extreme poverty and 37 .3%1 - in poverty . In 1992 by a resolution of the Supreme Council, the Republic of Armenia joined the United Nations Child Rights Convention (UNCRC), which entered into force in the RA on 22nd July 1993 . The accession and subsequent ratification of the Convention set the start of the process of reforming legislative framework in the newly independent country as well as paved the way for the child care reform. A country’s ratification of the CRC creates what can be regarded as a social contract between the state and its citizens as to the entitlements that children in its jurisdiction should be able to claim from the state and the society . States and societies face considerable challenges putting into place the means by which children’s rights can be realized, especially in the context of a fast-changing and globalizing world . The CRSA methodology provided a means to systematically analyze challenges, develop and provide evidence-based replicable solutions to the problems children encounter . The results of the study and recommendations are presented in sections below . In the recent years a number of very informative research pieces have been undertaken in Armenia, analyzing the children’s situation from a particular thematic or sectoral perspective2 . However, in Armenia there is a need of an up to date and comprehensive consolidation of the existing research on progress made towards achieving the UNCRC . For that purpose Save the Children in Armenia initiated a collaborative CRSA and has a coordinating role in this process . The central task in managing a CRSA is to gather sufficient information to produce an analysis that is comprehensive enough to be able to lead to strategic decision-making. The Armenian CRSA of 2015 is an 1 Social Snapshot and Poverty in Armenia, 2014. Part 1 - Armenia: Poverty Profile and Labor Market Developments in 2008-2013. RA National Statistics Service and World Bank. Retrieved from http://www.armstat.am/en/?nid=82&id=1618 on June 22, 2015. 2 Situation Analysis of Children in Armenia (UNICEF, 2012), A Snapshot of Alternative Care Arrangements in Armenia (SOS Children’s Village, 2011), or Children’s Rights in Child Care Centres and Special Educational Institutions: Systemic Analysis (RA Human Rights Defender, 2015) . 7 analysis of the child rights situation in the country (following the standard CRSA methodology) with an aim to fill the gap of a comprehensive assessment on children’s issues against the UNCRC commitments.. CRSA has been used by Save the Children since the UNCRC came into force in 1990, with Armenia adopting it’s guidelines. The Armenia CRSA was undertaken nationally to provide an overview of the situation. 8