UNFPA: Supporting Gender Equality in Armenia

What's the situation?

Armenia's transition from a republic of the former Soviet Union to Independence has had a major impact on the status of women.

While Armenia was still under communist rule, families experienced modest financial security even if their personal freedoms, incomes and opportunities were very limited by the political regime. The communist "quota" system ensured a proportion of female representation in parliament and in enterprises. Education was strongly encouraged by the state for both boys and girls.

Immediately after independence, however, Armenia plunged into a period of deep economic depression, exacerbated by an energy crisis, armed conflict, and the continuing financial and social cost of a devastating earthquake in 1988. The crisis, combined with new freedom to travel, led to a huge wave of migration from Armenia, with approximately one million people a quarter of the population leaving the country since 1990.

Although Armenia's economy has made a remarkable recovery, the social transformation and economic difficulties of the early 1990s caused a deterioration in the status of women which is still being felt. Although Independence has brought new personal and social freedoms and women's participation in education remains high, women have been less able to succeed in the new and more aggressive competition in post-communist Armenia.

The migration of a large portion of the male workforce has further increased pressures on the women who have remained behind to run the home, care for children and elderly or sick relatives.

In post-Soviet Armenia, women lack empowerment . With the end of the artificial communist "quotas", very few women now take part in political life . Only 4% of parliament seats are held by women ; there are no female ministers in government although there are three deputy ministers. Women's participation in privatisation and other economic processes has lagged behind that of men. Employment for women has remained heavily concentrated in education, health, and services

However, the percentage of women in administrative and managerial positions has steadily increased over the past 5 years. Women also dominate Non Governmental Organizations at least 80 per cent of NGO heads in Armenia are women. But the NGO sector remains we a k, and its ability to influence important decisions in political, economic and social life is limited.

In 2000, the Women's Council, a consultative body, was created by the Prime Minister's office . In 2002, a deputy minister of Labor and Social Affairs was appointed to coordinate gender-related activities. However, these bodies tackle social, health-related, and employment concerns and have neither the resources nor power to influence effective policies for women's rights and equal opportunities. A National Action Plan on Gender was adopted by the Government in 2003, but implementation has so far been weak.

Gender-based violence is widespread in Armenia and culturally accepted by both men and women: a survey in 2000 revealed that 42% of men and 32% of women agree with at least one reason for beating wives.

Such cases a re rarely reported, documented, and almost never prosecuted. Since Armenia doesn't have any kind of victim protection scheme, victims and their families hesitate to go police  for fear of discrimination and the possibility of further violence.

Poverty and a lack of equal opportunities led to women and girls from Armenia being exploited for trafficking . Since 2002, the Government has made considerable progress in strengthening its anti-trafficking response. Trafficking is now recognized as a crim e and the police have become more active in breaking up trafficking rings.

Armenia has ratified the UN Convention against Trans-national Organized Crime and the relevant Protocols and adopted a special National Action Plan . There have been campaigns to educate the public about trafficking . But much more needs to be done to strengthen the state's capacity to combat trafficking; improve its policies and laws; help victims and raise public awareness of the problem.

During both the Soviet period and in the years immediately after independence, sexual and reproductive health education in Armenia was largely ignored. The main sources of information for men and women have been peers and magazines.

Due to the poverty in Armenia the number of unwanted pregnancies has considerably decreased. However, because of the lack of availability and accessibility of RH or family planning services , women still resort to abortion as a means of fertility regulation. It is estimated that 21 per cent of pregnancies are terminated.

The high number of abortions, coupled with a general low standard of healthcare and malnutrition has resulted in a high rate of reproductive morbidity and infections and consequently high rates of secondary infertility. This in turn has a high economic and social cost.

Access to contraceptives in Armenia has improved considerably since 1996 and knowledge of contraceptive methods is very high (99 percent of married women). But while contraceptives can now be bought in pharmacies, they are still expensive.

Both men and women in Armenia are at increasing risk of sexually transmitted infections Armenia belongs to a region within which HIV/AIDS is spreading fast and its population is further endangered by the fact that it has close migration ties with countries with dangerously high STIs/HIV/AIDS growth rates, i.e. Russia and Ukraine . In recent decades there has been an increase in sexually transmitted infections in Armenia, particularly syphilis, gonorrhoea, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis.

It is clear that in order to address gender issues in Armenia, including gender advocacy, education, the prevention of violence and trafficking and an improvement in reproductive health, male involvement needs to be encouraged.