The Bill Setting the Minimum Marriage Age at 18 Without Exceptions Adopted

During the National Assembly session on September 11, several bills were adopted in the first and second readings and in full, along with the ratification of a number of agreements.

Among the projects accepted in the first reading is the draft law on "State Benefits," which envisages amendments and additions to related laws, aimed at implementing a new system for assessing need instead of family and social benefits. It stipulates that families recognized as socially vulnerable according to the assessment procedures established by the Government have the right to receive benefits if their monthly income is below the poverty threshold.

Notably, among the projects adopted in the second reading and in full is the package of bills amending the Family Code and the Civil Code of the Republic of Armenia, proposing to set the minimum marriage age at 18 without exceptions. It is noteworthy that under current Armenian legislation, while the marriage age is set at 18, there are exceptions that allow individuals to marry at the ages of 17 and 16.

The ratified agreements include the ratification of the protocol amending the agreement on “Intellectual Property Rights related to Trade.” According to Deputy Minister of Economy Sevak Mikayelyan, "The agreement applies to less developed and developing countries, and in circumstances where these countries face emergencies and their production capabilities do not allow them to produce and provide medicines related to, for example, a pandemic situation, that member country of the WTO has the opportunity to appeal to another member country, and that country—talking specifically about expensive medicines—grants a compulsory license to any company with production capability in its country, which must produce those medicines and supply them to the requesting country."