German embassy, young lawyers sign agreement on women’s right project

PanARMENIAN.Net - The German embassy in Yerevan signed Wednesday, April 14, an agreement with Armenia Young Lawyers Association NGO (AYLA) in support of its human rights project “Influencing the Women’s Rights Agenda” to be executed in the course of 2015.

The Federal Republic of Germany backs this project with an amount of €33,000, a press release from the German embassy to Armenia said.

AYLA’s above mentioned project pursues three goals:

- Legal monitoring of the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly. Armenia ratified this convention on September 23, 1993.

- To increase awareness of women’s rights issues in Armenia, particularly in the provinces, and to equip human rights defenders and civil society organizations to represent clients in this sector and to campaign for their rights.

-To start a debate on gender balance in local politics by hosting regional seminars with participation of local councils.

On the one hand, AYLA will submit suggestions for draft legislative amendments in the framework of this project and based on the monitoring of Armenia’s CEDAW obligations in collaboration with lawyers specialized on women’s rights. Those proposals aim at securing the legal and factual basis for equal participation of women in Armenia in all walks of life.

On the other hand vulnerable women are to benefit from a sustained increase in access to consultants specialized in women’s rights and to free legal advice. To achieve this goal AYLA will offer training courses to lawyers and to representatives of civil society as well as to local government representatives in the context of the above mentioned project, not only in Yerevan, but in four provinces (Shirak, Syunik, Gegharkunik, Lori) as well.

Furthermore seminars and discussion rounds to be organized as part of the project will serve to strongly encourage women to apply for political office (e.g. membership of local councils) and in the legal sector (e.g. the judiciary).

The project’s target groups are not only women and girls in Armenia, but also, among others, lawyers, human rights defenders, civil society representatives and members of local government councils (particularly women mayors).

Die deutsche Botschaft in Eriwan hält dieses Projekt für besonders förderungswürdig, weil die Gleichstellungspolitik mit dem Ziel der tatsächliche Gleichstellung von Frauen und Männern in allen Lebensbereichen durch Chancengleichheit sowie der Schutz der Frauen vor Gewalt und Ausbeutung für die Bundesregierung einen besonderen Stellenwert hat.

The German Embassy in Yerevan considers AYLA’s above mentioned projects especially worth to be supported as the German Federal Government awards special importance to an equal gender policy that aims at securing the same opportunities for both men and women in all aspects of life. Likewise important in this context is the protection of women from violence and exploitation.