Women were major role-players during the Velvet Revolution that took place in Armenia last year, and we need to turn the values that they introduced during the revolution into specific political programs and actions. This is what Armenia’s Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Zaruhi Batoyan said during a meeting with Åsa Regnér, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director, Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships Bureau, at UN Women.

The minister informed that the Government of Armenia also believes that promoting women’s political and economic participation is a major issue and stated that the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is currently developing a gender strategy that will be called for creating equal opportunities and ensuring equal rights for men and women since the lack of discrimination still doesn’t ensure the existence of equal opportunities.

Åsa Regnér informed that she has had meetings with other government officials and can say that the new Armenian government has a unified approach to the protection of women’s rights and the creation of equal opportunities for women. She also informed that the UN is planning on organizing an international conference devoted to women’s issues around the world in January-February 2020 and would like to ask Armenia to host the conference. Batoyan informed that she is willing to discuss the opportunities for that with the other relevant structures and noted that it would be an honor for the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to host the conference.