The regular session of the Working Group on RA human trafficking and exploitation issues was held

The regular session of the Working Group on RA human trafficking and exploitation issues was held

October 30th has been marked by the regular session of RA Human Trafficking Committee adjacent Working Group on Combating Trafficking, with Vahram Kazhoyan as the head of the session.

Each of the Working Group members introduced current issues with regard to trafficking. The discussion commenced with the OSCE Yerevan Office representative Ovsanna Babayan’s speech, who presented the process of the research project initiated by OSCE and the issues which occurred during the process. It was suggested to research the existence of the children’s forced labor not only in the households in the selected regions, but also in special child-care institutions. This suggestion was challenged, however, by the Ministry of Education and Science representative Anahit Muradyan, who argued that the results from the study conducted in special care institutions, as a rule, are far from reality, because children are keen to fantasize, when they are being interviewed. Nevertheless, through lawyers’ involvement, the issue of the questionnaire experiment conditions has been discussed, in particular the location of interview with children, the question of presence of parents, representatives of special care institutions and psychologists during the interview.

With regard to the interview with children, it was suggested to conduct it in domestic conditions. Questions such as the dangers of interviewing of children separately in special care institutions or orphanages, the use of caution and watchfulness in accordance with the psychological condition of children, the methods and tools to interview children with disabilities, have been raised by A. Muradyan.

Consequently, the main topic of discussion at the meeting was the selection of target group for the research questionnaire aimed at observing children’s forced labor: questions such as ‘which group of children the questionnaire should apply to’, ‘children from orphanages or special institutions or children from socially low-level families, where children are subjected to forced labor and sometimes to begging and as a result do not attend schools…’ has been discussed. Final decision was made to include all children.

Ovsanna Babayan also touched the issue of methodology, noting that till winter upon the receipt of survey results from several regions, the OSCE will finalize the methodology. She also highlighted the fact that without the results from experiement it was impossible to decide upon the methodology.

It is necessary to mention that the substantive part of the questionnaire OSCE project group agreed with the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

The next question of the session concerned the bill on “Identification of and support to persons subjected to trafficking in human beings and exploitation”. The head of anti-trafficking division of RA Police, Robert Grigoryan informed that the bill was already in the National Assembly, has been observed by the relevant committee and has to get into the agenda of the National Assembly.

The further discussion of the meeting was continued by the director of “Association of Audio-Visual Reporters'” NGO, Arzuman Harutyunyan, who raised the issue of the Public Social Announcements broadcasting by Public TV channel and asked the Working Group for support through the RA Government letter directed to Public TV Channel requesting to broadcast the Public Social Announcements free. The request was satisfied and Vahram Kazhoyan took the responsibility to deal with the issue. Simultaneously, Mr. Harutyunyan thanked the RA police, in particular Tigran Petrosyan for broadcasting the Public Social Announcements in “Hertapah Mas” (Police on duty ) and “02” programs of the Police. In connection with this, the US embassy in Armenia representative Maritsa Hovhannisyan noted that the TIP report should include information about this cooperation.

At the end of the session, Vahram Kazhoyan introduced the new member of the Working Group, employer of Labor Inspectorate of RA Ministry of Health, Stepan Shahumyan.

The photos of the meeting are available through the official Facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.972009799479090.1073741846.815159858497419&type=1

Anahit Arakelyan
“Development of Anti-trafficking information platform in Armenia” project volunteer