"Juvenile justice system around the world aims not only at detecting and punishing the criminals, but also at determining the causes of crime. Unfortunately, our system is not focused at clarifying the reasons of crime. It is more concentrated on punishing the offenders. Also the juvenile justice system differs little from the criminal justice system", said CSI NGO president Arman Danielyan during the presentation of "Trial Monitoring Report. Cases Involving Juvenile Defendants" on November 1^st, 2011.

According to him, the juvenile justice system in Armenia does not meet international standards, according to which special approach is applied towards children-offenders: particularly, there are specialized judges, investigators, prosecutors and defenders who work with them.

The report of "Trial Monitoring Report. Cases Involving Juvenile Defendants" was prepared by the "Civil Society Institute" NGO. The project has been launched in March of this year and lasted for 8 months. During the project 37 juvenile crime cases were observed in the courts of Yerevan, Gyumri and Vanadzor. According to the statistics provided by the police, in these regions the rate of crimes committed by juveniles is relatively higher.

In the report CSI experts emphasized the vulnerable points of the juvenile justice system and made recomendations to improve the laws and enforcement practices.

The judge of the RA Court of Appeals Elizaveta Danielyan emphasized the importance of all the issues raised in the report and noted that this project can contribute to the process of bringing legislation and practice in accordance with international standards.

"I also consider of great importance the fact that the the project is focused not only on persons who committed an offense, but also on the juvenile victims and particularly the development of the procedures for proper treatment with the witnesses", she said, adding that this process will contribute to better protection of the rights of the juvenile.

The Head of the Human Rights Projects of OSCE Office in Yerevan Vladimir Chuntulov said that the juvenile offenders are in need of not only governmental protection, but also protection of the society in general. "Along with the prevention there should be a policy suggesting alternatives to deprivation of liberty. We hope that this report will be useful and of practical importance for our Armenian partners in strengthening the protection of children's rights and interests," said Chuntulov.

Besides this report, another report on "Juvenile Justice System in Armenia from the Viewpoint of the Juvenile who is in Conflict with the Law" was presented. The research was conducted by "Advanced Social Technologies" NGO. The aim of the report was to present the problems of juvenile justice system from the perspective of children and present the solutions they offer.

The researches were implemented with the support of OSCE Yerevan office.

Mary Alexanyan

Video: Karine Ionessyan

Source:www.hra.am