“JUVENILE JUSTICE” POSSIBLE WAYS OF DEVELOPMENT”: SCIENTIFIC-PRACTICAL FORUM AT YSU

The RA Human Rights Defender Aram Tatoyan, the RA Vice Minister of Justice Suren Krmoyan, the Chairman of the RA Chamber of Advocates Ara Zohrabyan, the RA Deputy Prosecutor General Hayk Aslanyan, the Dean of the Faculty of Law of YSU Gagik Ghazinyan, members of the faculty, judges, advocates, employees of legal bodies, scientists, representatives of international structures and NGOs were present at the forum.

According to the Associate Professor of the Chair of Criminal Law, Doctor of law Anna Sargsyan, the aim of the forum is to bring together on one platform the scientists, experts, representatives of civil society concerned with the problems of juveniles having problems with the law, as well as to discuss the basic problems related to the juvenile justice in the RA presenting their scientific and practical aspects.

The Dean of YSU Faculty of Law Gagik Ghazinyan greeted the participants of the event and mentioned that this forum is important as juveniles are the future of our country and it is vital to prevent any juvenile crime. The system of juvenile justice in our country is not properly developed yet.

The RA Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan greeting those present mentioned that trainings are to be among the most important directions of juvenile justice development as the international standards in this sphere are developing very fast.

“One of essential aspects of juvenile justice is defending juvenile rights in prisons. One of the problems is lack of educational programs in prisons, ineffective social-psychological work with juveniles. Certain steps are to be taken to get educational programs. Besides, there are no special jails for juveniles in Armenia. It is vital to carry out preventive actions so that juveniles deal with violations as little as possible”, said Arman Tatoyan.

The RA Vice Minister of Justice Suren Krmoyan mentioned that for many years the problems of juvenile justice were paid little attention though some changes have been made recently.

The RA Deputy Prosecutor General Hayk Aslanyan thanked the organizers for such initiative aimed at discussion of the most vulnerable issues of criminal and criminal-judicial sphere. He attached importance to improvement of the system of juvenile justice and expressed hope that the forum will serve as a source of new approaches and ideas.

The Chairman of the Chamber of Advocates of Armenia Ara Zohrabyan stressed the significance of such an event too. He also urged to pay more attention to the tools and mechanisms which will make ti possible to keep juveniles away from the idea of committing a crime.

After the greetings the participants of the forum presented some reports on the sphere of juveniles’ rights.