Child protection and EU cooperation between Eastern Partnership countries during 2018, with a focus on Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine

Abstract

This is a brief overview of progress and challenges in three Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries during 2018. The first part of the article analyses the commitments and obligations of three EaP countries under the international and regional frameworks, emphasising the relevant mechanisms and checks and balances. In this part the United Nations and Council of Europe mechanisms are considered. The cooperation framework between the European Union (EU) and the EaP countries is considered separately. Considering the fact that human rights protection has always been one of the key preconditions in developing political and economic cooperation between the EU and partner countries and the fact that the EU proclaims itself as a global actor, human rights and child protection are considered separate cooperation dimensions. In the second part the bilateral and multilateral cooperation with the EaP countries is categorised into three clauses. The clauses are built on the announced strategies and agendas of cooperation emphasising the slight deviations from the initial plans. Furthermore, the overview of selected achievements and perplexing challenges in human rights with the focus on child protection are described in Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine. Although some comparisons are drawn between the three countries, the contribution encourages the idea of considering each country individually bearing in mind the recent changes in political transformation both in domestic and international relations, economic declines and social transformations caused by the aftermath of the conflicts with Russia, as well as the advancements in fulfilling the bilateral agendas. The research shows that the announced targets and the EU’s commitments and actions in developing national judiciary, human rights protection and social systems in Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine are slow. Nevertheless, the delayed achievements in human rights and child protection do not hinder the nature of cooperation between the EU and EaP countries, displaying the weak connection of human rights conditionality in the external policy of the EU with its neighbours. Key words: human rights; child protection; European Union; Eastern Partnership; partnership clauses