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Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early years of the 21st
Century - 2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/streetchildren/Armenia.htm
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CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Children On The Streets In Yerevan Taguhi Hakobyan,
Hetq Online archive.hetq.am/eng/society/h-0403-gavrosh.html [accessed 29 March 2011] HOW AND WHY DO CHILDREN END UP ON THE
STREETS? - 60% of the
children that police find in the streets and bring in to the center are
successfully returned to their families, and 40% are transferred to special
institutions. There are children that have been brought in two, three,
or more times, though not many. According to child psychologists,
the street children can be divided into four groups: 1. The most common,
children who beg at their own will. 2. Children who beg out of extreme
necessity, 3. Children who accompany begging with work (street prostitution).
4. Children who beg at the instigation of adults. These last seek outside
connections to avoid returning home. Forced begging can involve boys in
criminal gangs and girls in prostitution. A STREET CHILD IS A VICTIM - “Very often we blame the
children who beg and their parents. I think that’s not fair,” says Samuel Hanryon, who heads of the local office of the
organization Medecins Sans Frontieres.
Meetings with the children and their parents have convinced Hanryon that most of them are driven to the streets by
hopelessness and extreme poverty. There are families where parents are
unemployed, get into debt, and are forced to send their children out to beg.
According to Hanryon, 90% of street children go
home to their families. “Fortunately, there are no children who constantly
spend the night in the street,” he says. ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF - www.unicef.org/infobycountry/armenia.html [accessed 29 March 2011] The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms
of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/armenia.htm [accessed 19 January 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - There are reports of increasing numbers of children dropping out of
school and starting to work in the informal sector, especially in
agriculture. Children in the streets
of Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61635.htm [accessed 19 January 2011] CHILDREN - Education is free, universal,
and compulsory through age 14; a secondary education is provided through age
16(this represents a complete secondary education). According to the UN
Development Program, in 2003 84 percent of students completed schooling
through age 14, and 36 percent studied through age 16. In the Yezidi
community, a high percentage of children did not attend school, partly for
economic reasons and partly because schools lacked Yezidi
teachers and books in their native language. In September the government
published and distributed Kurdish- and Assyrian-language primary school
textbooks. During the year a local NGO
reported that nationally there were approximately one thousand homeless
children and that the number continued to grow. Abuse of street children did
not appear to be a serious problem. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, January 30, 2004 sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/uncom.nsf/0/431b11a18a3ec535c1256e2e0044014e?OpenDocument [accessed 19 January 2011] [245]. The Committee reiterates
its concern about the situation of street children, who are amongst the most
marginalized groups of children in [246]. The Committee reiterates
its recommendation that the State party establish mechanisms to ensure that
these street children are provided with identity documents, nutrition,
clothing and housing. Moreover, the State party should ensure that these
children have access to health care; reintegration services for physical,
sexual, and substance abuse; services for reconciliation with families;
comprehensive education, including vocational and life-skills training; and
access to legal aid. The State party should cooperate and coordinate its
efforts with civil society in this regard. The Committee also recommends that
the State party undertake a study on the nature and extent of the phenomenon. Committee
On The Rights Of The Child (CRC) - Summary Record Meeting 2000 Chairperson: Mrs. Ouedraogo,
Convention on the Rights of the Child, 9 March 2000 www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/efb31335e2b4ec72802568aa005d1fff?Opendocument [accessed 29 March 2011] 14. The situation with regard to
education was extremely disturbing: school attendance had decreased sharply,
the school dropout rate was on the rise and teachers were extremely badly
paid. The increase in the number of
street children was alarming, accompanied as it was by a rise in crime. Was
it true that children were forcibly enrolled in the army? Children On The Streets In Taguhi Hakobyan,
Hetq Online archive.hetq.am/eng/society/h-0403-gavrosh.html [accessed 29 March 2011] HOW AND WHY DO CHILDREN END UP ON
THE STREETS? - 60% of
the children that police find in the streets and bring in to the center are
successfully returned to their families, and 40% are transferred to special
institutions. There are children that have been brought in two, three,
or more times, though not many. According to child psychologists,
the street children can be divided into four groups: 1. The most common,
children who beg at their own will. 2. Children who beg out of extreme
necessity, 3. Children who accompany begging with work (street prostitution).
4. Children who beg at the instigation of adults. These last seek outside
connections to avoid returning home. Forced begging can involve boys in
criminal gangs and girls in prostitution. A STREET CHILD IS A VICTIM - “Very often we blame the
children who beg and their parents. I think that’s not fair,” says Samuel Hanryon, who heads of the local office of the
organization Medecins Sans Frontieres.
Meetings with the children and their parents have convinced Hanryon that most of them are driven to the streets by
hopelessness and extreme poverty. There are families where parents are
unemployed, get into debt, and are forced to send their children out to beg.
According to Hanryon, 90% of street children go home
to their families. “Fortunately, there are no children who constantly spend
the night in the street,” he says. When I Grow Up, I Will Become Like You Anna Beglarian At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 September 2011] MEANWHILE - The Specialists dealing with
children’s problems, confirm that the “street children” originally appeared in
the streets of Sona Meloyan,
iwpr.net/report-news/armenia-child-prostitution-taboo [accessed 30 March 2011] Underage prostitution is growing as more young people end up on the streets. Few people in Armenia will admit
that child prostitutes exist, let alone talk openly about it. That is making
it harder to address the problem as increasing numbers of vulnerable young
people end up living on the street.
"They never talk about child prostitution. It's a taboo
subject," Mikael Danielian,
head of the Armenian Helsinki Group, told IWPR. "Neither the police nor the
authorities - not even adult prostitutes - will say anything. They try to
stifle the subject, shut it down. But that does not make it any less of a
problem." - sccp My Story as an AYF Intern in Talene Hatzadourian,
The Armenian Weekly, October 2002 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 September 2011] Sitting in on these therapy
sessions, I learned a lot about the difficult and stressful lives these children
led each and every day. These therapy sessions helped the children express
their emotions and deal with the pain and loss they have experienced
throughout their lives (and at such young ages). Many of them had lost at least one parent
or family member, and lived in extremely congested and filthy homes in the
poorest areas of Mount Ararat and the Flute Player of Milia Ali, The Star Weekend Magazine, Vol 1 Num 117, August 08, 2003 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 September 2011] And, of course, the street
children of Orran Benevolent Non-Governmental
Organization Orran ["haven" in Armenian] [accessed 30 March 2011] There are more than 14,000
children who do not attend school in the Grants
To Organizations - OSI Grant List Open Society Foundations - www.osi.am/grant_list.asp?year=2001&page_num=1 [accessed 30 March 2011] Date of Grant Letter: 4/13/2001 Program:
Civil Society Grant Number:
506011UA51 Organization:
NEW To work with street children in Near East Foundation Annual Report
2004, maxvps016.maximumasp.com/v016u22meh/main/news/article.aspx?id=445 [access information unavailable] 48%of Armenians live below the
poverty line and many families are not able to adequately care for their
children. Street kids have many assets
to work with-street smarts, ambition, responsibility, and entrepreneurial
skills. The Fund
for Armenian (FAR) Fund for Armenian Relief FAR www.armenianheritage.com/farindex.htm [accessed 30 March 2011] STREET
CHILDREN’S All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE
RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.
Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Street Children - |
Human Trafficking in [Armenia] [other countries]Street Children in [Armenia Child Prostitution in [Armenia] [other countries]