Today, the Government of the Republic of Armenia has approved the provision of Gender Policy. Within a six months period, the RA Government has obligated all interested Ministries to present to the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Issues the action plans for 2010-2015 on gender policy, which should be summarized within two months and introduced to the RA Government.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Tigran Sargsyan, has considered it expedient to draw the attention of political parties to the issue of gender policy. The provision is directed to improve women’s status in society, and particularly to include more women into the pre-election list of political parties.

As mentioned by the Prime Minister, it is extremely important to improve the indicators in the given field since women’s potential is not being fully realized in the state and civil life of Armenia.

Compiled from www.tert.am

11.02.2010

On December 21 at the Writers’ Creative House in Tsaghkadzor the three-day international conference on the theme Perspectives of Reaching Gender Equality: The Political and Legal Viewpoints. It is held by the sponsorship of RA National Assembly, UN Office in the Republic of Armenia and OSCE Yerevan Office with the participation of Women’s Association with University Education, UN Population’s Fund and Open Society Institute-Assistance Foundation Armenia. The deputies of the National Assembly, representatives of political parties, international and public organizations, guests invited from foreign countries took part in the works of the conference.

RA NA Vice Speaker Mrs. Arevik Petrosyan gave a welcome speech at the opening of the conference. Wishing effective work the NA Vice Speaker said in particular: “The gender issues are at the center of attention of the National Assembly, and we highlight effective and purposeful cooperation and initiative directed to the solution of the gender problems. Its evidence is also the fact that the international conference is held under the aegis of the National Assembly and with the active participation of the NA deputies. The participation of the National Assembly to the above-mentioned event testifies to one important circumstance too: we don’t only announce but we also carry out close and active cooperation with international and public organizations. In this context, taking the advantage we wish to inform you about a new initiative of the National Assembly, too. Within the framework of the Memorandum of the Understanding signed between the National Assembly and British Council it is envisaged to form an advisory body on gender issues adjunct to NA Speaker. It will be involved in the coordinated and comprehensive study of gender issues, concerned discussion of the parliamentarians’ initiatives representing different political forces and provision of corresponding of corresponding procedure. Development of skills, study of international experience, gender examination, analysis of legislation is also envisaged. Today I’ll also present the ruling approach in the National Assembly: we share the European approaches on gender equality, according to which that equality is an important precondition of full respect for human rights, democracy, poverty reduction and provision of social justice, progress of legal state. Our wish is that during the discussions of the conference we should objectively emphasize the achievements, which Armenia had already reached, had given legal and practical solutions, and the problems, which we should still solve.”

UN Resident Coordinator Ms. Laylee Moshiri, Head of OSCE Office, Ambassador Mr. Sergey Kapinos noted in their speeches that the gender stereotypes, discrimination between women and men, violence in the family are still not solved.

The heads of these international organizations also emphasize the cooperation with the legislative body of Armenia.

The draft law on Ensuring Women’s and Men’s Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities, which was elaborated in the government, was presented for the discussion of the conference participants.

During the conference the participants also discussed the draft law of Armenia’s gender policy concept and its strategy of the fulfillment. The documents have not still been submitted to the parliament, but the National Assembly is ready to hold comprehensive discussion of the draft laws and provision of the procedure.

During the conference reports were presented on UN strategy and European structures of gender equality.

Compiled from RA National Assembly webpage: www.parliament.am

21.12.2009

Official translation

 For Armenian version, click here.

Any progress in the process of social, political and economical emancipation of women in Armenia shall give positive results, said Sergey Kapinos, the Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

"This problem is very real for Armenia, because the country encounters multiple challenges and threats, thus in solving gender problems like Israel it can significantly improve the level of security"- he said to journalists on Friday.
Kapinos clarified that he speaks of the possibility to expand the participation of women in law enforcement, including the Police and Armed Forces.

"I am not talking about drafting women to serve in the army, but about professional employment of women. This shall cause only positive effects and shall serve to reinforce Armenian statehood" - he said.

In this connection, the Head of the OSCE mission in Yerevan also mentioned that a significant part of Armenian society tends to seriously underestimate the gender problem.

"We do not talk only about the improvement of social-economical status of women, but also about the provision of equal rights for men and women." - he emphasized.

Kapinos stated that based upon promotion of democratic principles, OSCE  aims at provision of equal principles for all citizens, regardless of gender.
"This issue is extremely real for Armenia, not to mention the fact that involvement of women in economic processes, business environments and political life shall immediately transfer a powerful impulse to the social-economical development of the Republic." - he outlined.

Compiled from:  Novosti-Armenia, 15:47 | 24/ 10/ 2008
http://www.newsarmenia.ru

Unofficial translation from Russian

• There are 3.1 million people living in Armenia; about 52 per cent are women
• In Armenia, women are more likely to live below the poverty line than men
• One third of the Armenian population lives in rural areas; about half of these rural inhabitants are women
• Agriculture employs 45 per cent of the work force in Armenia; almost half of these workers are women
• Women constitute 66 per cent of the unemployed workers in Armenia
• On average, women earn about 30 per cent less than their male counterparts
• Nearly 1 million people have migrated from Armenia since 1991; the vast majority of these migrants are men
• Female-headed households constitute about 27 per cent of Armenian households
• Women’s participation in government is very low; for instance, less than 5 per cent of deputies in the Armenian Parliament are women
• About 83 per cent of the country’s educators are women

Compiled from:  International Fund for Agricultural Development,   http://www.ifad.org

Female-headed households are particularly vulnerable to falling into extreme poverty since women are left alone to shoulder the burdens of household and childcare responsibilities. Another consequence of male migration has been the growth in “parallel families”, where migrant male workers establish another family in their new location. This phenomenon is increasing the number of female-headed households in Armenia and compounding their vulnerability, especially when men return home in poor health or infected with a sexually transmitted disease.

Armenia grants women equal rights under the law, including equal entitlement to education, health care, employment and certain anti-discrimination measures. However, such legislation is not widely applied since Armenia does not have a public agency designed to deal with gender issues.

The National Action Plan 2004-2010 on Improving the Status of Women  and Enhancing Their Role in Society emphasizes the need for effective institutions to address women’s issues. The Plan also highlights the unequal participation of women in the country’s political and social spheres and calls for women’s increased involvement in democratization and the development of civil society. To improve the social and economic condition of women, the Plan recommends expanding business opportunities for women, especially in rural areas, and developing national arts and crafts production.

Armenia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper promotes the use of microcredit schemes to help boost women’s employment and entrepreneurship, especially among female-headed households. Additionally, the paper outlines the establishment of quotas to substantially increase women’s participation in governance.

Compiled from: 
International Fund for Agricultural Development, http://www.ifad.org

“Novoe Vremya”

1609, 17.05.2008

Unofficial translation from Russian.  

Despite the latest progress in the enhancement of women’s roles, particularly in economic and political aspects, European women are rarely present in the highest political and economical positions.

This becomes even more evident in the executive summary of the European Commission's “Women and Men in Decision-Making 2007” presentation, which coincided with International Women’s Day  on the 8^th of March.

According to the report, the number of women in National Parliaments of EU member states has significantly increased. In 1997, it was 16%, and in 2007 it had grown to 24%. Yet, as experts think, this index is still far from 30%, which is the point where women can have a significant influence in politics.    

It is worth mentioning, though, that in European Parliament, women-parliamentarians are 31% of the whole.   

The gender proportion in the staff of national governments is 3/2 (24% are women and 76% - men).

Governments of the EU member states are in the most “top condition” in terms of women’s participation. Here women occupy 33% of average positions (in 1999 this index was 19%.)

In the economic sphere, women rarely occupy decision-making positions. In all 27 EU member states, the Heads of Central Banks are men.

32% of EU women lead small and medium enterprises (SME): The majority of large enterprises are managed by men.

A.Serobyan

“Hayastani Hanrapetutyun”, unofficial translation from Armenian

08.03.2008

45 /4382/

According to Armnie Tanashyan,  the Head of the Department of Family, Women and Children's Issues at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, domestic violence is a common thing in our society and a majority of women face it. Yesterday, at the new Panorama.am club, during the roundtable dedicated to the issues “Women and families” and “Domestic violence” she emphasized that a “discussion of gender issues is extremely important in terms of the elimination of inequality and a solution to problems of our society.” 

She expressed her opinion that stereotypes formed in our society do not allow us to “keep step with time.” Gender inequality leads to disagreements in families and causes violence. “A working woman becomes a reason for disagreements in a family. Men who were brought up in a traditional way do not tolerate strong and practical women by their side. In my opinion, this is the main reason for women being “misunderstood” in their families,”- noted Hasmik Khachatryan, press secretary of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. 

Meanwhile, according to psychologist Naira Sahakyan, both in the animal world and in human society, in crisis situations women take over the reins of government, because females are more adjustable than males. “Men give up more easily and lose courage, where women are genetically stronger. In this connection, men develop an inferiority complex, because of which strong and independent women get exposed to domestic violence,”- she said.

In the course of the discussion, experts came to the conclusion that society has a serious influence on man-woman relations. Thus, if society takes no steps to change its position on these matters, relations between men and women inside families will not change. 

Unofficial translation from Russian

http://www.panorama.am/ru/society/2008/01/26/gender/

2008-01-28

ginsc

Women in Armenia do not run for presidential elections because it is not customary in our country. This point of view was expressed by Ruzanna Khachatryan, member of the political board of the People’s Party of RA during a discussion on the subject of  “Necessity of Political Participation of RA women,” initiated by the left wing Feminist party of Sweden and the People’s Party of Armenia.  

The People’s Party of Armenia conducted a survey among 400 students aiming to find out whether there is a need for women’s participation in the work of the National Parliament, Government and the President’s Office. Over 50% of participants think that it doesn’t matter if the position is held by a man or a woman as long as the candidate meets the requirements of the post.

The survey was divided into 3 parts: elections of local authorities, elections of Members of the National Assembly and Presidential elections. “For the National Assembly we had good results, because there is a precedent. Besides, people see that women work well, so their number can be increased. A survey about elections of local authorities showed that 30% of respondents think that it would be better if the community was governed by a woman rather then by a man. 40% think that it doesn’t matter,”said Ruzanna Khachatryan. She added that fewer respondents were in favor of a female president, “because we have no precedent.”

“The legend that the electorate shall not vote for a woman is past. Women do not want to take part in the elections because their husbands won’t agree,”- the chairman of the Armenian Republican Women’s Council Nora Hakobyan expressed her opinion. 

 http://www.a1plus.am/ru/?page=issue&iid=55936

2008-01-15

GINSC

Unofficial translation from Russian

The experts are confident that the result of these activities implemented by their office will lead to the disappearance of gender inequality and will raise the role of women in political and economical life.

The experts believe that women are equally involved with men in political activities in Armenia. As the expert Armine Mkhitaryan stated, in a small country such as Armenia, the opinion of society is crucial, and if a woman decides to be actively involved in politics it is aimed only to decrease the aggression of men or to deal with discussions on kindergartens and schools. It is very important for Armenian women to be supported by men.      

Gohar Nurijanyan

Hayastani Hanrapetutyun

5.12.2007

Unofficial translation

The post of the Deputy Speaker has been vacant since Ishkhan Zakaryan, former Deputy Speaker, was elected as a chairman of the Oversight Chamber.   

http://www.newsarmenia.ru/arm1/20071105/41764710.html

2007-11-06

Compiled from: www.ginsc.net . Unofficial translation from Russian.

“To win elections or for successful competition with men a female candidate in Armenia must be three times smarter than a male candidate”, - thinks Hermine Nahdalyan, member of Republican Party of Armenia. In Armenia it is a humiliation for a male candidate to lose in competition with a woman – she said today during a press conference, when speaking about gender correlations in country’s political life.

The senator thinks that there is only one situation when a man avoids competition with a woman – when this man is a coward. Yet, at the same time Hermine Naghdalyan thinks that we shouldn’t fall into another extreme and start appointing women, who yield to men in their skills and capabilities, for positions in state structures just to have women represented there. In the Parliament of RA 3 of 7 members of the smallest fraction “Legacy” are women, whereas in the fraction of the major Republican party there are only two – Hermine Naghdalyan and Hranush Hakobyan.       

http://www.armtown.com/news/ru/prm/20071017/26231/

2007-11-06

Compiled from:  www.ginsc.net . Unofficial translation from Russian.

   Addressing the Parliament, he said that the Convention was signed in 1954 and by 2006 January, 120 nations have joined it. He said that the ratification is also stipulated by Armenia’s National Plan of Action designed to improve the situation of women and raise their role in the society.

   He said the ratification will mean that Armenia wishes to observe the principle of men's and women's equality as it is spelled out in the UN Declaration of Basic Human Rights.

   Larisa Alaverdian, from the opposition Heritage party, said the Parliament should pass a set of related laws to be able to materialize the Convention’s provisions, apart from extra financial means.

   The deputy minister said the financial means are envisaged by the National Plan of Action for 2004-2010. The lawmakers are expected to ratify the Convention tomorrow.

Published in: Armenpress, Yerevan, October 23, 2007

Women’s and Children’s Rights in the Context of Human Rights

The themes of “International human rights day,” “16 days of gender-based violence,” “Children’s state in the world in 2007, women and children, women’s and men’s equality” were included into the agenda when International Human Rights Day was marked yesterday at the UN Office in Armenia.

The seminar, which took place at the UN Office in Armenia, was opened by Ms. Consuelo Vidal, UN Resident Coordinator in Armenia. The first report was dedicated to the issue of women’s and children’s rights.

What is the situation in Armenia? Any society’s level of development can be determined by the attitude of that society towards women and children. To what extent is our country promoting women’s rights and the state of children? What is the situation in the world? Mr. Sheldon Yett, representative of UNICEF, tried to answer these questions in his report.

According to the UNICEF representative, “women’s being educated and strong, as well as their participation in decision-making processes, promotes their children’s fundamental education, improvement of the issues related to their health and nourishment, a rise in incomes of families and prosperity of civil society.”
According to him “despite the fact that Armenia has achieved significant progress in the field of providing women with equal rights and opportunities, there are still some fields where joint efforts are needed to eliminate discrimination and inequality.” Particularly, the number of women in Armenian political structures, as well as high-level positions of state and self-governing bodies, is still low. There are only 7 women out of the total number of 131 Members of Parliament. Of 17 Ministers, only one is a woman and of 56 Deputy Ministers, only 3 are women. This means that the number of women in both the legislative and executive bodies is very small. In the opinion of the reporter, “participation of women in the early stages of policy development promotes development of projects meeting the needs of women and children.”

“Another sphere and another problem:” Women are paid less than men in almost all branches of the Armenian economy and the unemployment rate among women is higher. And, according to the speaker, “most of the cases of violence against women, especially domestic violence, are not registered, and there is no reliable data on the number of women-victims of violence.”

Mr. Yett sees the answer to “What to do?” question in the following: “It is necessary to improve the state of women in the following three main directions: family, workplace and political life. Improvement of any of the mentioned spheres will promote women’s equality in the other spheres and will have a positive impact upon the children’s state.”

It is also worth adding that in 2006 the UNDP celebrates its 60th anniversary as a leading organization dealing with children’s rights protection in the world, the aim of which is to create a world where health, food and education will be guaranteed for children.

Lousine Hovhannisyan

Published in: “Hayots Ashkharh”, 232/2295, 12 December 2006 (Unofficial translation)

Extract from the article “There are 5.3% of women-parliamentarians in the Parliament of Armenia, 9.4% - in Georgia, 11.3% - in Azerbaijan.”

Armenia is the last among the republics of the Southern Caucasus in the level of representation of women in the legislative branch of power, according to the report of Andress Johnson, Secretary-General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The report presents statistics for 2006 on the representation of women in the Parliaments of 189 countries of the world.

According to the Press-Center of the UN, the report, presented the day before at the UN headquarters, particularly says that Armenia is the 123rd on the list – with 5.3% of women Deputies. The situation is a little better in Georgia, where 9.4% of MPs are women, and in Azerbaijan, where the percentage of women in the Parliament is 11.3%. Nevertheless, those levels are much less than average in the countries of the world. According to the report, today women constitute on average 17% of the representation in the highest legislative bodies of the world.

Published in: http://www.ginsc.net/members/news_details_ru.php?id=3360&sub=region&stat=active, 6 March 2007, (Unofficial translation)

Men Benefit From “Women’s Action Plan”?

With the aim of enhancing women’s role and improving their social status, the RA Government is implementing the Action Plan for 2004-2010. Yesterday, activity that had been carried out within the framework of the Action Plan during 2006 was discussed and approved at a session of the Government. In the interview after the session, Mrs. Lala Ghazaryan, Head of the Family, Women and Children Issues Department of the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Issues, announced that the Prime Minister was satisfied with the activity during the above-mentioned period. According to L.Ghazaryan, one of the main results of the plan was the raise in salaries of pedagogues. Referring to this, journalists asked why the salaries of male pedagogues had been raised within the framework of the “Women’s Action Plan,” if the money was foreseen for women only. Mrs. Ghazaryan failed to give any answer to that question. According to the Head of the Department, they did one more thing – 60% of the total number of 7618 unemployed people found a job. However, L.Ghazaryan was unable to recall the number of women among those 7618 people. 4 billion Armenian Drams (AMD) were allocated from the state budget for implementation of the Action Plan last year; this year 600 million AMD was added.

L.Amirbekyan

Published in: “Aravot” Daily (http://www.aravot.am), 14/2880, 26 January 2006 (Unofficial translation)

Is a Woman’s Place in the Kitchen?

According to the traditional mentality of many Armenian families, the woman has to be occupied only with housekeeping and upbringing of the children, if not before marriage, then after it, by the husband’s decision.

Men explain this decision by jealousy- many of them are convinced that if a woman gets a promotion and earns more money than man, “her tongue will be loose and one day she will reproach the man.” Besides, they think that women will be unable to combine a job and family and the children’s upbringing will be incomplete. Sometimes they would proudly say, “What a man am I, if I send my wife or daughter to work?” Surrounding women with luxury, men deprive them of freedom. Some of such women, who agreed with their husbands’ above-mentioned demand, confess that they had not objected to the decision, thinking it was a sign of love and care, while years later they understood that it did not support strengthening their family, but rather prevented fit rom being happy. They say that husbands’ jealousy turns into boredom from the woman’s monotony and leads to unfaithfulness and alienation. Many women, having realized their mistake, often do not even blame their husbands for unfaithfulness, as, according to them, even they are tired of themselves and life to say nothing of any interest invoked in their husbands toward them.

As for reproaching for the money that women earn, women think that it is typical of husbands’ nature in general, and not to wives. Women say they have often heard and been insulted by such statements by their husbands as “Aren’t you what I have kept so far? I work all day long to care for you…” and so on. This proves that men are not afraid of woman’s earning money, but just try to control them, depriving of any alternative. As for children’s upbringing, women say that only a mother’s care and advice are not enough, but fathers are overloaded with work and are busy with satisfying their financial needs, which leads to a shortage of time to be spent with children. Women are convinced that if they work they could bring up the children better, as far as in that case they could afford not only bringing up children at home, but also at  educational institutions. In that case husbands will not be so overloaded with work and children would be in the focus of attention and care of both spouses. It is worth mentioning that men, realizing their mistake, do not wish the same life for their daughters. They advise their daughters to have education and are proud of their successes.

Tatev Mesropyan

Published in: “Haykakan Zhamanak”, 2/1717/, 10 January 2007 (Unofficial translation)

Women Are Paid 30% Less Than Men in Armenia

Women are paid 30% less than men in all spheres of the economy in Armenia, said UNICEF representative Sheldon Yett during the presentation of the “Situation of children in the world” report, dedicated to the UNICEF’s 60th anniversary.

He added that  the unemployment rate is higher among women than among men, and that women make up 60% of the unemployed population of the republic.
“Despite the positive trend in the issue of providing equal rights and opportunities to women and men in Armenia, there are still spheres where joint efforts are needed for the elimination of discrimination and inequality,”  Mr. Yett said.

He mentioned that the number of women represented in the political structures, as well as in the highest bodies of central and local government, is still low.
The UNICEF representative pointed out  that among 131 Deputies, only 7 are women, and among 17 Ministers, only one is a woman (the Minister of Culture and Youth Affairs - ARKA), and among 56 Vice-Ministers, only 3 are women.

Mr. Yett stressed that violence against women in Armenia has become an urgent problem. He is convinced that propaganda against violence toward women is not only necessary to disclose the cases of discrimination against women in Armenia, but also to take practical steps to improve their status in different spheres of life.

The presentation of the report on “Situation of children in the world” was organized as part of summing up the 16-day marathon  against Gender Violence.

Published in: http://www.ginsc.net/members/news_details_ru.php?id=2860&sub=region&stat=active (unofficial translation)

The seminar participants engaged in active discussion. The exchange of opinions and experience of the participants made the seminar even more interesting.
At the end of the meeting, a draft of the “The program on highlighting the issue of gender equity by the Armenian Mass Media” was submitted for the consideration of the Mass Media representatives, as the gender policy actions to be held by the Armenian Mass Media. 

Compiled from: Ministry of Labor and Social Issues, 8 February 2005, available at http://www.mss.am/arm/news/news05/news29.htm