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– Gender equality starts from the women\u2019s representation in the National Assembly<\/strong> since this is where all laws relating to equality of women are drafted. And if women\u2019s equality is violated in the National Assembly, then there is no use in talking about other institutions, \u00a0–\u00a0 said Margarita Hakobyan, Oxfam Director in Armenia in her opening remarks at the discussion on women\u2019s participation in the parliamentary elections. The discussion was held in the National Press Club on 19 June 2012. It was organized by Oxfam, \u201cCaucasus\u201d Research Center and the Civil Society Partnership Network. <\/strong><\/p>\n The choice to reflect on the topic of women\u2019s participation is not at all accidental for Oxfam. During its 18 years of presence in the sectors of agriculture, healthcare and others Oxfam has placed a special accent on the protection of women\u2019s rights and maintaining of gender equality in all its development programs. Staying highly committed to its mission of fighting against poverty, inequality and social injustice, Oxfam develops and implements programs in such a way that women play a greater role in the taking of decisions that affect them.<\/p>\n As Margarita Hakobyan, Oxfam Director in Armenia said, – women are in the heart of our programs; women\u2019s equality is a core component in our programs and is integrated into all priorities we follow both in social, economic and civic rights related projects.<\/p>\n Putting strong emphasis on the role of participatory democracy in the country\u2019s development Oxfam has always thoroughly followed local elections processes, and nowadays observing women\u2019s larger representation in the parliamentary elections is an imperative of time. This goal was guiding all activities initiated and implemented by the Civil Society Partnership Network (CSPN) uniting around 30 non-governmental organizations which are Oxfam partners. CSPN member organizations undertook a number of important activities in the pre-elections period. Lilit Chitchyan, CSPN Coordinator presented these activities in detail.<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Two of CSPN members conducted an interesting educational\/training campaign in the regions of Shirak, Vayots Dzor and Syunik. Within the campaign Oxfam partners trained the community population on important provisions of the electoral procedures, organized meetings with participation of local MP candidates and presented them with pledges based on programme priorities identified in the areas of agriculture and healthcare, – said Lilit Chitchyan, also highlighting that CSPN will be consistent in having these priorities raised in the first session of the newly elected National Assembly (NA).<\/p>\n \u201cCSPN will monitor the presentation, promotion and possible solution of those programmatic pledges starting from the first NA session,\u201d – she added.<\/p>\n The flash mob entitled \u201cMy vote is power\u201d has been another CSPN initiative implemented in partnership with Armenian Young Women\u2019s Association.<\/p>\n \u201cYoung women and girls – participants of the flash mob walked along the streets and emphasized the importance of the right to vote. They demonstrated the passers-by that every person\u2019s right to vote is important and valued and needs to be implemented.<\/p>\n She also mentioned that CSPN in partnership with \u201cCaucasus\u201d Sociological Research Centre and \u201cPro-Media Gender\u201d NGO organized and held both electronic and letter e-petition and posted an appeal to all political parties on their websites.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the appeal we presented important statistical data on women\u2019s representation in the electoral lists of the political parties and appealed to the parties to maintain the initially defined proportion in the NA after the elections. The \u201cCaucasus\u201d Sociological Research Centre produced and aired social ads on radio and TV calling for women candidates to stand for their rights and not to give up their seats in the NA after the elections, – said Lilit Chitchyan.<\/p>\n Margarita Hakobyan presented the future activities of Oxfam and \u201cCaucasus\u201d Sociological Research Centre joint cooperation and noted that the final comprehensive gender analysis and expert research on 06 May 2012 parliamentary elections will be launched in September 2012 by the Centre.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n To note, experts of \u201cCaucasus\u201d Sociological Research Centre, a number of NGOs partnering with Oxfam, women politicians and media representatives participated at the discussion. The discussion evolved around the peculiarities of campaigns led by women candidates and their cooperation with mass media. The representation of women in the National Assembly was assessed by the speakers as not satisfactory for Armenia.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lilit Kochinyan<\/strong><\/p>\n \n <\/p>\n \u00a0Read about this discussion in detail in our website:<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Lilit Galstyan: \u201cA competitive, educated woman is not able \u201cto play\u201d by the rules of the political game in Armenia\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Larisa Alaverdyan: \u201cThe country will face changes by women\u2019s active entrance into politics \u2026\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Armenian women in political parties and NGOs<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n