Ad հoc public report on Custodian and Guardianship Bodies and Custodian and Guardianship Commissions has been prepared at the Human Rights Defender’s Office of Armenia.
The report enabled to reveal the following main issues:
representatives of the Custodian and Guardianship Commissions work on a voluntary basis, which is a significant obstacle for professional and motivated work of these institutions;
lack of effective mechanisms of liability for non-performance or inappropriate performance of their obligations;
educational qualifications and professional education requirements of employees are not clearly defined;
solutions on composition and structure of Custodian and Guardianship Commissions are challenging;
lack of separate code of conduct for the representatives of Custodian and Guardianship Bodies. They should take into account the psychological peculiarities of the work with children and parents;
the procedure of engaging non-governmental organizations in the activities of the named Commissions and Bodies is challenging.
As a result of the study recommendations were developed that will contribute to the improvement of the activities of Custodian and Guardianship Bodies, Custodian and Guardianship Commissions, as well as to the state of children’s rights protection.
While preparing the Report complaints addressed to the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, reports on Custodian and Guardianship Bodies were analyzed, experience of foreign countries on children’s rights protection system at local level, as well as RA legislation were examined.
During the study, discussions were held with NGOs operating in the field of children’s rights protection and representatives of Custodian and Guardianship Commissions.
The ad hoc public report is available here.