On December 10-19, 2012 the Penal Reform
International (PRI) and Civil Society Institute (CSI) NGO organized the
training sessions on the issue of juvenile justice for defense lawyers, prosecutors
and judges.

 The
main goal of the training sessions was to present juvenile justice standards
enshrined in the international treaties and share the best practice experience
of various countries.

The trainer, Juvenile Justice Expert Muhammad
Iman Ali analyzed the Armenian legislation in force from the perspective of its
compliance with the obligations of Armenia under the international
law. He highlighted the need to enforce the implementation of non-judicial and
alternative measures in the cases of juveniles, such as  counseling and probation services, referral to
guardianship and guardians’, training programmes, which is also the requirement
under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. .

The participants discussed the problems
arising in the process ofeimplementation of the law. In particular, the
participants expressed concerns in regard to cases when participation of a juvenile
in a number of activities within the frames of the criminal case, including
multiple interrogations, may have a negative impact on the psychological condition
of the juvenile victim. The trainer presented the practice of various countries
where a separate judicial proceeding is arranged for  juvenile participants to the case, special
conditions are provided in the court rooms, only closed sessions are conducted,
the number of  interrogations of
juveniles is reduced to minimum.

The expert stressed out the importance of the
social worker’s participation at all stages of the review of the case with
involvement of a juvenile (during the investigation, trial and after). He stated
that  re-socialization of a juvenile
offender is key in order to prevent the juvenile from committing offence again.

As a result of vivid discussions, the training
participants agreed that there was a need for special treatment for juveniles. The
importance of  specialized defense
lawyers, prosecutors and judges dealing with juvenile cases was highlighted.

Training session was organized in the frames
of “Promotion of the Modern Concepts in the Administration of Juvenile Justice
in Armenia”
project.

Anna Melikyan