US embassy cable - 04YEREVAN2546

UNCLAS YEREVAN 002546 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN, DRL, IO/UN 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, KOCI, AM 
SUBJECT:  ARMENIAN HIGH COURT APPROVES OPTIONAL 
PROTOCOL ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD 
 
 
(SBU) Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
On November 23, the Armenian Constitutional Court 
approved the GOAM's signing of the "Optional Protocol 
to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the 
sale of children, child prostitution, and child 
pornography."  The treaty now moves to the National 
Assembly for final ratification.  According to local 
UNICEF officer Naira Avetisyan, the National Assembly 
hopes to ratify this and the Optional Protocol on the 
involvement of children in armed conflicts by year's 
end.  Avetesyan stated that the National Assembly would 
not need to change Armenian law in order to comply with 
either protocol.  She explained that "The Law on Child 
Rights," passed in 1996, closely mirrors the 
"Convention on the Rights of the Child" because the 
Soviet Union was a signatory to the convention and the 
Armenian law was modeled on Soviet law. 
EVANS