“Parties are bound to create equal opportunities for both men and women”

On October 18^th the National Assembly held parliamentary hearings on the Constitutional Law on Parties, Existing Problems and the Scope of Amendments. Stakeholders: MPs, representatives of the public sector, government, election experts presented their views on one of the most important laws in political life.

Hamazasp Danielyan, Coordinator of the Electoral Reform Task Force, formulated the goal of changing the law on political parties ahead of the election to make the activities of the parties more transparent and credible and to improve the political arena in order to make the next election more competitive and ideological. In this context, the views on increasing the role of women in parties in a number of speeches were also voiced…

Julia Gebhard, OSCE / ODIHR

The OSCE / ODIHR Opinion on the Law on Political Parties was presented by Yulia Gebhard, noting that the current law complies with European standards, but there are a number of shortcomings. Among them, they also touched upon the role and participation of women in parties.

In particular, experts from the European organization point out that funding in Armenia remains one of the biggest barriers to women entering politics. For this reason, the legislature may consider enabling women to have special wings within parties.

Lena Nazaryan, Vice President of the National Assembly

– I do not believe that parties that do not exhibit equal speech and conduct towards women and men assuming the governance of the country can provide truly equal rights for citizens of a country with a nearly equal number of men and women. Lena Nazaryan, Vice President of the National Assembly, stated this in her speech.

Parties, regardless of their ideas, regardless of their leaders’ perceptions and preferences, must be obliged to be democratic and equal, to create equal opportunities for both men and women. And this should not be in the whims of individual leaders, because discriminatory, corrupt, non-democratic parties should not have a chance to develop political processes in Armenia, “she said.

The NA Vice Speaker then presented her two main proposals, the first of which relates to mechanisms aimed at promoting women’s activism in political life. Nazaryan, in particular, proposes that the principle of gender representation in the formation of party leaderships be ensured.

Armen Mazmanyan, Expert Coordinator of the Electoral Reform Working Group

“It is obvious to the naked eye that the representatives of a certain group are dominated by the Armenian parties, especially regarding the unbalanced representation of the sexes,” said expert Armen Mazmanyan, Coordinator of the Electoral Reform Task Force. According to him, it is important to ensure the involvement of parties.

Vardine Grigoryan, HCA Vanadzor Representative

Vardine Grigoryan, a representative of HCA Vanadzor, presented a large package of proposals, including the promotion of women’s participation.

According to Grigoryan, one of the important proposals is to ensure inclusion in parties, in particular the number of members of one of the founding members of the party should not be less than 30%.

Armine Kyureghyan, ARF Party

– Inclusion of women, ethnic minorities and the disabled in the Law on Parties is very important to ensure inclusion in the law, said ARF Dashnaktsutyun member Armenuhi Kyureghyan, noting that it is important to remember that parties are formed not by a specific person, but by ideas and ideas about ideologies.