By the confirmation of Gor Ghletchyan, the press secretary of penitentiaries administration of the Ministry of Justice, now the number of women who have children under three under their care in the Abovyan penitentiary is 2. Till now 5-6 prisoners were in the penitentiary in different years, who had children under their care. The data of the group of observers which implements supervision in the penitentiaries and organs of the RA Ministry of Justice, are the proof of it.
The image is as follows:
A decision should have been made during these years, which would regulate the process of providing children with necessary means of care, but it has not been made yet.
There is nothing about means of care for children in the decision
The list of supplies given to prisoners is defined by decision N 413-Ն of the RA Government made on April 10, 2003, but there are no names of things provided for children in the legal document.
The list goes on, but means of care are not seen anywhere.
They do not exist, but are not prohibited!
When we asked about how the necessary things for children are obtained in such conditions, Gor Ghletchyan, the press secretary of penitentiaries administration of the Ministry of Justice, answered, «The allowed things are mentioned in the decision, and there are no things for children, but they are also absent in the list of the prohibited products, thus, those things can be obtained from the outside by the permission of the head of the organization.»
So, in other words, if the husbands of the aforementioned women are also in penitentiaries, or such women do not receive any support from outside due to various reasons, the care for children becomes impossible.
Araik Zalyan, a member of observers group which carries supervision in the penitentiaries and organs of the RA Ministry of Justice, referring to the problem, told us, “It has been a problem since 2003, but up to now, 2015, no steps have been made in order to solve it, and nobody knows in what conditions children are brought up, from where they get the necessary meal, hygiene products, and other things, I personally met women who have children under three in 2015, and the condition is the same, no change has been made till now.”
The decision is not processed
The members of the observers group wrote a letter to the RA Ministry of Justice and asked to give them the names of the products provided to the people who have children under three and also information about the decision. As an answer, it is said in the letter of the head of staff of the ministry that a decision project had been accepted and put in the circulation in the RA government, and it regulates the sizes of products necessary for the care of prisoners and convicts who have children under three, but this project has not been confirmed yet.
Tsovinar Khachatryan, the press secretary of the RA Minister of Justice, referring to the project of the decision, said, «The decision is not complete yet, it is in the phase of processing.»
So, we can conclude that from 2003 till 2015 there was no time for discussing and making a decision about the question of the care for the children of prisoners, and the project of the decision is still hanging in the air.
Lilit Shaboyan
