I-NewsWire Press Release
April 14 2005
UNICEF praises Armenian progress towards a protective environment for
all children
UNICEF has hailed Armenia’s ratification of the Optional Protocol to
the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of
Children in Armed Conflict and ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms
of Child Labour. Both were signed by President Kocharyan today after
being cleared by the Armenian National Assembly on 21 March 2005.
i-Newswire, 2005-04-14 – `The ratification of these two international
instruments paves the way for the implementation of the country’s
ten-year National Plan of Action for Children. It is a key step in
ensuring a `protective environment’ for Armenia’s children,’ says
Sheldon Yett, UNICEF Representative in Armenia.
The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed
Conflict raises the minimum age for direct participation in
hostilities to 18 years from the minimum age of 15 years specified in
the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It also raises the age of
mandatory recruitment to the armed forces from 15 to 18 and the
minimum age for voluntary recruitment to 15 years.
‘Hundreds of thousands of children are being exploited in conflicts
throughout the world,’ says Yett. `Through the ratification of this
protocol, Armenia pledges to ensure that children in this country
will never have to face the prospect of actively participating in
hostilities, consequently spending the rest of their lives scarred by
conflict.’
The Optional Protocol on Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict
has been ratified by 89 countries, including Armenia.
ILO Convention 182 calls on the parties to the Convention to take
immediate actions to remove all children below 18 from labour that is
detrimental to their health and dignity.
UNICEF estimates that 250 million children worldwide are engaged in
child labour. Many are working in horrific conditions, working in
mines, working with chemicals and pesticides and working with
dangerous machinery.
`They are everywhere, but they are invisible,’ says Yett. `They are
toiling as domestic servants in homes, labouring behind the walls of
workshops and kneeling in the mud of the world’s fields.
`Child labour reinforces a cruel cycle of deprivation. On one hand it
is symptomatic of widespread poverty. On the other hand, because
child labour usually keeps children out of school, in poor health and
exposes them to psychological and physical abuse, it reinforces this
poverty by keeping yet another generation from fulfilling its
potential.’
The new labour code of Armenia adopted earlier this year is largely
consistent with ILO Convention 182 and other international
instruments regulating child labor.
`UNICEF is working with the Government of Armenia to ensure that all
children have access to quality education,’ says Yett. `But we also
need to work actively at community level so that children and parents
see school as a better immediate option than work.’
Armenia is the 154th country to ratify ILO Convention 182.
On 19 March 2005 the Government of Armenia ratified the Optional
Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of
children, child prostitution and child pornography.
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UNICEF established its presence in Armenia in 1994. UNICEF is
mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the
protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and
to expand their opportunities to meet their full potential.
For further information, please contact:
Emil Sahakyan, Communication Officer, UNICEF Armenia
Tel: ( 374 1 ) 523-546, 566497,580-174
E-mail: esahakyan@unicef.org