UN helps Armenian women have say in politics

Noyan Tapan news agency
25 Oct 04

Yerevan, 22 October: The involvement of women in political affairs,
the issue of trafficking and other issues were discussed at a two-day
international conference entitled “To assist women’s progress: the
national programme in action” which started in Yerevan on 22 October.

A nationwide programme for 2004-10 of improving the life of women
and increasing their role in society was presented at the conference.

Armenian Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Security Karine
Akopyan noted that the programme will ensure that men and women have
equal rights and possibilities which is a condition for building
a democratic, legal, and social state. The programme, the deputy
minister said, will help to tackle socioeconomic problems that women
face and to overcome poverty in the country.

According to data cited by the national programme, the republic’s
rate of population growth reduced by a factor of eight and the rate
of birth dropped by a factor of two in the last 10 years.

One of the main reasons for that is infertility which constitutes 31.9
per cent in the republic today. According to the Armenian police,
correspondingly 52, 51 and 55 women apparently became victims of
violence in the republic in 2001, 2002 and 2003.

The conference is being held within the framework of the programme
“Gender policy in the South Caucasus”. The latter is being implemented
in Armenia by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security and the UN
Development Programme [UNDP].