“We cannot say that we do not like our girls but the obsession to have a boy is so great”

՛՛Sex-selective abortions affect Armenia’s image”, – such an opinion was expressed by Peter Svitalski  – Head of the EU Delegation in the RA during the session of the Advisory committee of the program “Combating discrimination against fetal sex selection”.

According to him, fetal sex selection issue is discriminatory in terms of long-term negative consequences of demographic trends, weakening the natural gender balance and causing serious social problems.

“I had heard about this long time ago, before the time when I had no idea that should work in Armenia. We were discussing Europe’s demographic problems and I learned that Armenia had a problem in this regard. Therefore, in this respect, the image is in decline. In addition, the society first of all suffers because of losing more than 1,400 girls” he said, noting that the EU is ready to help Armenia and the Armenian government by allocating 750 thousand euro to resolving this issue.

“The problem cannot be solved by administrative means, it is necessary to raise the population’s awareness,” he said, adding that an estimated 50 percent increase in public awareness can reduce 10% of this negative phenomenon.

Full text in Armnenian