CHILD MARRIAGE - ARMENIA

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