Epress.am News from Armenia
The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in Armenia is inviting all interested parties to participate in a round table discussion on issues related to Armenia’s LGBT community at 2 pm on Sept. 24, 2010.
Since no official surveys are conducted regarding LGBT community in Armenia with different structures claiming the community doesn’t experience problems at all, this round table discussion is aimed to raise some problems facing LGBT community.
Armenia’s LGBT community constantly faces discrimination in employment, legal and social fields. In July 2010, IWPR’s Caucasus Reporting Service published an article titled “Armenian Gays Face Intolerance, Discrimination” which particularly highlighted issues related to gay men securing and maintaining employment.
The LGBT community often faces intolerance in Armenian society. In its 2009 Human Rights report, the US embassy emphasized that “general societal attitudes towards homosexuality remained highly unfavorable.”
“Society continued largely to view homosexuality as an affliction. Societal discrimination based on sexual orientation continued to be a problem with respect to employment, family relations, and access to education and health care for sexual minorities,” underlined Human Rights report 2009.
During the round table, Mamikon Hovsepyan, head of Public Information and Need of Knowledge (PINK) NGO, will present a report, called “We and Our Rights,” published as a result of qualitative research and legal analysis conducted by his organization in 2010.
Lusine Vayachyan will also present her thoughts on issues related to sex reassignment surgery (SRS), legal and other obstacles that make it impossible to perform this surgery in Armenia.
Representatives of Armenia’s Ombudsman office, police, ministries of justice and labor and social affairs, government officials, as well as representatives of local and international human rights organizations, media and LGBT community are invited to take part in the round table discussion.
This round table discussion is organized within Building Bridges/Building Capacity in the South Caucasus project supported by funding from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) helps people living in the most challenging environments have the information and capacity they need to drive positive changes in their lives — holding governments accountable, demanding constructive solutions, strengthening civil society and securing human rights.