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Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early years
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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
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ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
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