The “Brave Woman” of the Year is Vardine Grigoryan

Laureates of Universal Rights 2018 Awards

The next award ceremony for Universal Rights was held this year on February 20^th in Yerevan, in the Matenadaran building. Since 2012, this award has been marked by significant contributions by Armenian civil society and media leaders and state figures in promoting human rights and freedoms.

Ambassadors and diplomats accredited to Armenia have expressed their appreciation to the individuals representing human rights, freedom of expression, tolerance, democracy, transparency, legal reform and equal rights promotion in Armenia. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was the honorable guest of the event.

“Our resolution is to create equal opportunities for all citizens and equal access to equal opportunities. We will consistently follow that path because our political view and vision and ideology aims to do the first thing in the context of the protection of rights  to ensure that each citizen of the Republic of Armenia is entitled to his / her social, scientific, economic and political position/ the head of government said in his speech.

Speeches were made also by the Head of the European Union Delegation to Armenia, EU Ambassador Pyotr Svitalsky, UN Resident Coordinator in Armenia Shombi Sharp, US Charge d’Affaires in Armenia Rafik Mansour, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Armenia Ambassador Judith Farnworth, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Yerevan Natalia Vutova, Chargé d’Affaires of Sweden in Armenia Martin Fredrickson, French Ambassador to Armenia Jonathan Lackot, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Germany to the Republic of Armenia Mati Kiessler.

Universal rights awards were awarded in 10 nominations: “Freedom Defender”, “Community Development”, “Access to Justice”, “Promoting Inclusion”, “Mediation”, “Government Reformer”, “Partnership Advocate”, “Brave Woman”, “Young Leader” , as well as a French-German joint prize in the “Equal Opportunities” category. It should be noted that most of the awards were given to women this year.

The awards were given by the children of “Orran” charity NGO. By the way, the award-winning organizers took care of the rights of people with hearing impairments.