“We must encourage women’s participation in the country’s political life.” Annual report of the Human Rights Defender

In the annual report on the activities of the RA Human Rights Defender, the state of protection of human rights and freedoms, the Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan, as in previous years’ reports, referred in detail to the protection of women’s rights in the labor market, socio-economic, social and political life women’s issues, women’s reproductive health, sex-selective abortion, hate speech manifestations.

Referring to the low participation of women in political and public life, the Human Rights Defender noted in his report that this issue was still relevant in 2020, when both international organizations and representatives of Armenian civil society raised the issue.

In the report, the problem is particularly mentioned:

To raise the issue, the Human Rights Defender launched an awareness campaign in 2020 to promote women’s success stories by calling for “Be an Example”. The Human Rights Defender has launched a public awareness campaign for women’s success stories, which aimed to break the stereotypes about the role of women in society, to inspire the public with success stories. The Defender offers to join the spread of the “Be an Example” call and send women success stories to ombuds@ombuds.am. Stories will inspire women to become the next example. The awareness campaign was accompanied by the hashtags #Become_example in Armenian and #Set_an_example, which was attended by women from different professions and occupations from different regions of the country.

Politically, women’s involvement in public life in general remains low, although according to existing studies, women in Armenia are not inferior to men in education.

One of the various factors hindering women’s full participation and involvement in public and political life are the stereotypes about women’s role and abilities, their involvement in public life, and discriminatory perceptions. They are often not seen as decision makers, policy makers and implementers.

It is absolutely unacceptable to insult a woman by targeting her sex and doing so in a way that offends a woman’s private or family life. It is just as absolutely unacceptable when it is done within the framework of political or any other discussion. It is especially unacceptable when it happens in the sitting of the parliament and it is against a female deputy.

Respect for women, guaranteeing their dignity and fighting stereotypes should be the mission of each of us. There should be a dignified, equal attitude towards women in our society. We must encourage women’s participation in the political life of the country.

It should be noted again that such targeting is highly unacceptable, especially if the issue concerns children, regardless of whether it is about the official family or not. It is more unacceptable when it is done by a public official who has a direct responsibility to fight stereotypes and encourage the role of women in decision-making.

The Human Rights Defender has repeatedly stated in various statements about insulting dignity and the dangerous consequences of hate speech, noting that insulting and degrading human dignity has reached extremely dangerous levels, emphasizing that such phenomena undermine all legal and moral values and endanger common values.

According to the Central Electoral Commission, as of January 14, 2021, women make only 30 of the 132 candidates who received the mandate of deputy as a result of the December 9, 2018 parliamentary elections.

Examining the results of local government elections, it is clear that women are under-represented in these bodies.

The official data on the sex ratio of employees in other state bodies testify to the insufficient involvement of women in the decision-making process.

A combined analysis of these data shows that women outnumber men only in low-ranking positions. As for the already high positions, the number of men obviously prevails here.

Taking into account the above, it is necessary to take systemic steps:

• Increase society’s awareness of the role of women, women’s political involvement, and the importance of women’s participation in public life;
• Raise the level of women’s political and legal awareness, to promote the development of professional knowledge and skills of young women in the political system, processes, effective decision-making methodology, to ensure a level playing field for political competition;
• Inform women about their rights through the mass media, regular discussions and seminars.

Full text in Armenian