US embassy cable - 05YEREVAN469

UNCLAS YEREVAN 000469 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR G/IWI AND EUR/CACEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON, ELAB, PHUM, PGOV, SCUL, SOCI, KWMN, AM 
SUBJECT: CHILD MARRIAGE - ARMENIA 
 
REF:  STATE 36341 
 
1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
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SUMMARY 
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2. (SBU) There are no reported incidents of child 
marriage in Armenia, except in small Yezidi and Kurdish 
national minority groups where experts believe the 
issue is a problem.  No data exist, however, to 
indicate the prevalence of the practice.  Official 
population statistics indicate an increase in the age 
at which both men and women first marry.  Local child 
protection experts told us that they do not have any 
records of child marriage cases.  Due to the limited 
scale of the problem there are no programs in this 
field implemented by USG funding, or other agencies at 
this time.  End Summary. 
 
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POST RESPONSE 
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3. (SBU) The following responses are keyed to the 
questions in the reftel. 
 
A)  According to the Armenian Family Code the minimum 
legal age for marriage is seventeen for girls and 
eighteen for boys.  The code does not allow marriage at 
a younger age.  According to official statistics, in 
2003 the average age at first marriage in Armenia was: 
 
-- 27.6  for men in urban areas; 
-- 23.9  for women in urban areas; 
-- 26.9  for men in rural areas; and 
-- 22.3  for women in rural areas. 
 
Recent statistics also show a steady increase in the 
average age for first marriage for men and women in 
both urban and rural areas. 
 
B)  With the exception of the Yezidi and Kurdish 
minority groups, child marriage is not a problem in 
Armenia.  Under existing socio-economic conditions, 
Armenian families value education and career 
development, and therefore do not encourage early 
marriages.  All the local agencies inquired, UNICEF, 
the Department on Children Issues of the Ministry of 
Labor and Social Affairs, and local NGOs, unanimously 
reported that child marriage is not a problem in 
Armenia. 
 
-- The head of the Governmental Department on National 
Minorities and Religion (DNMR) Hranoush Kharatyan 
attested that cases of child marriage among the Yezidi 
and Kurdish communities of Armenia are common.  (Note: 
Armenia is a 98 percent mono-ethnic country, and Yezidi 
and Kurdish communities constitute less than 1.5 
percent of the population.  End Note.)  In those 
communities girls marry as young as thirteen or 
fourteen years; early marriage of boys is less common. 
According to Kharatyan, as a result of early marriages, 
girls in this communities face health risks, are 
exposed to heavy labor and do not have the opportunity 
to receive an adequate education.  The DNMR does not 
have statistical figures on this phenomenon, but it 
will publish a qualitative assessment of the child 
marriage problem on national minorities in Armenia. 
 
C)  Due to the limited scale of the child marriage 
problem in Armenia there are no programs in this field 
implemented by USG funding, nor sponsored by other 
international donors.  We also do not see an urgent 
need for such a program at this time. 
EVANS