August 11, 2008

View PDF of document

"Summary"

---

In July 1993 Armenia acceded to the 1951 Refugee Convention. From 1988 to 1992, the country was engulfed in the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh, which brought about 400, 000 refugees from Azerbaijan. The overwhelming majority of them has either moved from Armenia to other countries, or has naturalized. More recently, after the war broke out in Iraq, Armenia has been registering a steady number of applicants from Iraq.

The following analysis of the protection situation in Armenia is focused on the refugee and asylum seeker population. Its aim is to set out clearly current gaps in government and community protection capacities as a necessary first step to the development and implementation of measures to remedy those gaps.

It is being undertaken on the heals of Armenia’s signing of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) programme, which sets out strategic objectives of cooperation between Armenia and the European Union in the areas of migration and asylum for the 2007-2013 time period. This gaps analysis is part of UNHCR’S larger Strengthening Protection Capacity Project – Southern Caucasus (SPCP-SC), financed by the European Commission which is dedicated to the strengthening of protection responses to forced displacement in the region.