Conference on gender equality held in Armenia

YEREVAN, 19 September 2003 - A conference focusing on Armenia's policy on gender equality and the improvement of the status of women ended successfully in Yerevan yesterday.

The main topic of the conference was the 2004 to 2010 National Plan of Action of the Republic of Armenia on the Improvement of the Status of Women and the Enhancement of their Role in Society, which defines basic policy elements for the Armenian government with respect to the position of women in society. Its main goal is to fulfill Armenia's Constitutional Provision on equal rights and opportunities for men and women.

The Action Plan covers economic, social and cultural issues as well as strategies against violence and trafficking.

Armenia's Deputy Minister of Social Security, Karine Hakobyan, underlined at the opening of the conference the importance of the Plan and expressed hope that it would be adopted by the government in October so that it could serve as an effective mechanism to improve the situation with the role of women in Armenian society.

The conference was organized by Armenia's Ministry of Social Security, the OSCE Office in Yerevan, and the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

Gender equality is an important goal for the OSCE's efforts to assist states in their strive to establish and maintain peaceful, prosperous and democratic societies.

The OSCE Office and the ODIHR have focused their efforts on three themes:

• Promoting equal rights and opportunities for women through capacity-building and gender education projects, awareness-raising activities and the monitoring of women's human rights
• Increasing the role of women in decision-making by developing their networking skills, advocacy and lobbying, as well as by training of trainers and training for leadership and political participation
• Preventing and combating gender based violence, implemented through programmes for law enforcement personnel