\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Zeitlin met with Deputy Foreign Minister Ashot Hovakimian, Vice Speaker of National Assembly\u00a0Hermine Naghdalian, deputy ministers and government representatives, civil society leaders, as well as members of the Gender Theme Group co-chaired by the OSCE Office in Yerevan.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cArmenia has been on a track to harmonize its national laws and policies, seeking to address equality and gender-based violence in a comprehensive and systematic way, and gradually increasing women\u2019s political participation at all levels,\u201d Zeitlin said. \u201cProgress has been made, although we recognize that these changes will not come overnight. What is critically important is to adopt national legislation that helps establish norms in society to foster the recognition that women should have equal rights to men and that violence in the family is unacceptable and must be punished.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Representative noted that political participation of women in recent parliamentary elections somewhat increased to a bit over 10 percent and underlined the need for renewed efforts in the run-up to the 2014 local elections.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Commenting on recent public debates surrounding this issue triggered by a new law on equal opportunities and the adoption of a gender action plan by Armenia, Zeitlin said: \u2018The term \u2018gender equality\u2019 is often misinterpreted and misunderstood. In a democratic society, a public debate on gender equality and women\u2019s rights is healthy, but should be grounded in facts and evidence. Those making distortions and deliberate misrepresentations should be challenged by the government at the highest levels, as well as international institutions and civil society leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She commended the work done by the OSCE Office in Yerevan in promoting gender equality and women\u2019s political and economic empowerment\u00a0in Yerevan and in rural areas, particularly in the Syunik\u00a0region, and pledged the continued support of the Organization in helping Armenia implement its international commitments.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n This e-mail message may contain confidential and\/or privileged material. Delivery of this message to any person other than the intended recipient(s) does not in any way waive privilege or confidentiality. The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to whom or which it is addressed. Unauthorized use, disclosure or copying is strictly prohibited. The sender accepts no liability for the proper transmission of this communication or for any delay in its receipt.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on Gender Issues, June Zeitlin, during her visit to Armenia concluding today discussed\u00a0the\u00a0implementation of Armenia\u2019s commitments\u00a0to promote gender equality, improve\u00a0women\u2019s political […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-119","category-110"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.womennet.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/archive.womennet.amwp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/IMG_6607.jpg\")
The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on Gender Issues, June Zeitlin, during her visit to Armenia concluding today discussed\u00a0the\u00a0implementation of Armenia\u2019s commitments\u00a0to promote gender equality, improve\u00a0women\u2019s political and public participation, and\u00a0address domestic violence.<\/p>\n