Armenia – Information for Consideration by the Committee on the Rights of the Child at its 97th Session, August 2024

Equality Now, together with its partners based in Armenia – Sexual Assault Crisis Centre NGO, the Women’s Resource Center, and Safe YOU –  submitted  concerns about laws related to sexual violence and procedures and practices which effectively deny access to justice for the girl survivors of sexual violence. Specifically, Armenia’s legal system provides a number of opportunities for perpetrators to escape criminal liability or punishment, namely through the way sexual violence crimes are defined and through the way sexual violence crimes are investigated and prosecuted.

What’s included in the submission?

•  Pervasive gender stereotypes and victim-blaming further deter survivors from seeking help. Armenia’s lack of comprehensive sexuality education exacerbates the problem.
• The definition and enforcement of crimes of sexual violence against girls remain problematic. Some criminal law provisions imply that a girl under 16 somehow consented to or initiated sexual intercourse by an adult, which disregards the power dynamics and vulnerabilities inherent in such situations and provides opportunities for perpetrators to escape accountability and appropriate punishment.
• Harmful practices such as child and forced marriages (CEFM) remain a significant issue in Armenia.
• Armenia lacks a comprehensive gender and child-sensitive methodology to investigate sexual violence crimes, resulting in re-victimization during the investigative process.
• Girls from vulnerable and marginalized groups experience intersecting forms of discrimination and serious barriers to accessing justice for sexual violence.

Who’s it for?

• UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 
• Law and policymakers 
• Legal professionals
• Government institutions

Key recommendations

•  Amend the Criminal Code of Armenia to ensure that the consent of a minor under 16 is not examined and that the offense is classified as rape, with appropriate penalties and ensuring robust criminal justice response.
•  Amend the Family Code to set 18 as the minimum age of marriage without any exceptions.
• Develop a comprehensive and child and gender-sensitive methodology, guidelines, and protocols to investigate sexual violence crimes.
• Abolish the practice of intrusive interviews, forced confrontations, invasive forensic examinations, and virginity testing; avoid adverse and unscientific inferences from a hymen’s condition; ensure that investigative actions involving minors are properly recorded (including video recording if necessary) to avoid repeated interviews.