Armenia, UN sign memorandum to combat human trafficking

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
14 Jun 05

[Presenter] The Armenian Prosecutor-General’s Office will soon present
the government with a draft law on additions and changes to the
Armenian Criminal Code. The main goal of these changes is to improve
the struggle against human trafficking. Human trafficking is a new
type of crime for Armenia, and the United Nations and the Armenian
Prosecutor-General’s Office have launched a joint struggle against it.

Armenia’s Prosecutor-General Agvan Ovsepyan and the UN deputy permanent
coordinator in Armenia, Aleksandr Avanesov, have signed a memorandum
on mutual understanding in which the parties agreed to set up a new
department at the Armenian Prosecutor-General’s Office within the
framework of this memorandum in order to combat this type of crime.

[Avanesov speaking in Russian with Armenian voice-over] We believe that
this memorandum is an integral part of the UN programme. There is such
a problem in all the post-Soviet countries and similar programmes are
also being implemented in Georgia and Azerbaijan. Our donor countries
have also welcomed the implementation of this programme.

[Armenia’s Prosecutor-General Ovsepyan] We have taken considerable
measures to solve crimes in 2004-2005 and have made progress. A
general mechanism of investigating criminal cases has been established.