The closing session of the NA-CSO Open Platform for Cooperation, was held on 19 and 20 December at the “Elegant Hotel Complex” in Tsakhkadzor. Ms Lusine Nalbandyan, Lawyer/Expert at the Armenian Lawyers’ Association attended the session as well. The two-day session was organized by the OxyGen Foundation with the support of the National Democracy Institute.
The objective of the event was to summarize the results of the NA-CSO Cooperation Platform meetings and identify mechanisms to make the platform more operational and effective, to formulate an action plan for the NA-CSO Cooperation Platform for 2020 aimed at improving gender policy in the country.
RA Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Issues Zhanna Andreasyan, MP Lena Nazaryan and other deputies, representatives of interested CSOs and international organizations participated in the event on the first day.
During the discussion the participants touched upon several issues related to the protection of women’s reproductive rights. The ALA representative stated that, “According to the “UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women”, Armenia has undertaken a number of international commitments, which should provide for changes aimed at protecting women’s rights in various fields. The ratification process of the Istanbul Convention is a long and already politicized process. In order for the NA-CSO platform to succeed, clear strategic directions, measures, actions and responsible persons need to be identified and worked on, to implement legislative initiatives; that is, by applying domestic mechanisms to achieve change in the issues of the reproductive rights of women, which has been discussed for many times. It is no need to ratify the Istanbul Convention, which provides for strict criminal liability for doctors who practice abortion or parents who have an abortion; it is no need to ratify the Istanbul Convention and so on to introduce the whistleblowing institute in the hospitals. At the national legislative level we can urge the NA deputies to come up with initiatives to address legislative gaps; and the NA-CSO platform was created for this very reason.” Lusine Nalbandyan also suggested that a specific number of MPs should be included in the working groups according to the provided quotas. These deputies would be directly involved in the sectoral work, and not just attending the final meetings.
During the two-day meeting, the main strategic directions for a year were identified as a result of the reflection; the actions to be carried out later according to the timetable were outlined. The scope of NA-CSO platform cooperation with the executive authorities was defined as well.