The number of divorces in Syunik marz is great. According to the specialist the problem stems from bad social and everyday life conditions.
Today, the regular training on “Women’s Rights” took place in Kapan City of the RA, in the framework of “Influencing the Women’s Rights Agenda” project. The members of the Armenian Young Lawyers Association delivered lectures on the sphere for the lawyers, human rights activists and advocates.
Vache Baghdasaryan, the lawyer of “Foundation Against Violation of Law” NGO mentioned that representatives of the major part of the divorced in Kapan are representatives of the age group of 25-30 years. “Both we and the courts try to do everything possible to prevent the families from disintegration. But unfortunately it does not work,” said the lawyer.
Another problem that the women face in Syunik Marz is women’s participation in the public and political life.
One of the participants of the seminar, Ashot Asatryan, the lawyer of “Gandzasar” Football Club suggested the solution of the problem. His recommendation was to apply football diplomacy.
“Nearly three years ago, the province for the first time faced a crisis of a football referees. The poor quality of referees resulted in the occurrences of hooliganism acts in the stadium. It was decided that 5 girls shall be included in the referees’ corps, and I have to say that a notable order was established,” said the lawyer.
Advocate Miss Syuzanna Soghomonyan spoke about the sex-selective abortion. The participants mentioned that the problem virtually does not exists in their marz on the simple explanation that the birth rate in the marz is very low due to mining industry, so the families are really happy with the birth of boys and girls.
Mr. Karen Zadoyan, the AYLA President spoke at the seminar as well. He introduced the project and the activities that planned to be implemented in its framework. Ani Asatryan, Project Coordinator in Syunik marz referred to the project as well.
Advocate Mariam Zadoyan, the Project Expert introduced information on women’s participation and introduced the international best practices. She spoke about legislative provisions of ensuring participation of women in legislative, executive and judicial powers, and local self government. She also spoke about the RA obligations under the International Treaties from the aspect of the protection of women’s rights and about the practical ways of application of the women’s rights.
The Project Expert, Advocate Suzanna Soghomonyan spoke about the property rights of the women. She also spoke about the rights of reproductive health, including the legal problems of sex-selective abortion. During the seminar the participants raised the issues of concern through questions and answers, watched the videos on the problems in the sphere and participated in the group work.
“Influencing the Women’s Rights Agenda” project is implemented by the Armenian Young Lawyers Association NGO with financial support of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in the Republic of Armenia.
Within the framework of the project the organization provides free legal advice on the women’s rights to citizens, in Yerevan and in 4 provinces of the RA, since 1 May, 2015.
Gevorg Tosunyan
