On April 11, the Staff of the Human Rights Defender
of Armenia headed by the Defender left for Syunik within the framework of a
joint visit organized by the UNFPA. Acting UN Resident Coordinator in Armenia
Ms. Lila Pieters Yahia, Head of the EU Delegation of Armenia Ms. Andrea Wiktorin,
Lithuanian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia Ms. Inga
Stanytė-Toločkienė take part in this visit.
The visit started with the visit of a joint
delegation to the Kapan Women's Resource Center and the center's social
enterprise where the representatives of the "WINNET Armenia" network
of women resource centers of Kapan and Meghri, and the beneficiaries displaced
from Artsakh of the UNFPA humanitarian program were met.
During the meeting, the Human Rights Defender of
Armenia, Ms. Kristinne Grigoryan, stated that "I should say that as a
Human Rights Defender, one of my five most important priorities is the economic
and political empowerment of women. More than half of our population are women,
but when we look at how we use their potential, we realize that we still have a
long route to pass."
The UNFPA Armenia Head of Office Ms. Tsovinar
Harutyunyan, who is also one of the first supporters of the “WINNET Armenia”
network of women resource centers, introduced the guests and the members of the
network, noting that the experience of the network was recognized as the best.
The Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador
H.E. Ms. Andrea Wiktorin, addressing the women present at the meeting, said
that she understands the difficulties they have faced and still are facing: “We
are here to listen to you, to understand your situation, and what steps we can
take to cooperate better.”
This is the first visit to the marzes of Armenia for
the Acting UN Resident Coordinator in Armenia, Ms. Lila Pieters Yahia. The
Acting UN Resident Coordinator noted that they would listen with interest to
the solutions offered by the women and how they could together push the work
forward based on those proposed solutions. Ms. Pieters Yahia stressed that the empowerment
of women is one of the priority directions of the UN.
The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of
the Republic of Lithuania to Armenia, H.E. Ms. Inga Stanytė-Toločkienė, noted
that the Lithuanian Embassy promotes the use of renewable energy in Syunik but,
as a particular direction, works for women’s empowerment.
The representatives of Kapan and Meghri Women's
Resource Centers spoke about the way passed by their centers, the work and
programs done, and the current main challenges and shared their possible
solutions.
And at the end, a close discussion was held with the
representatives of the centers and the beneficiary women.
Tomorrow, the visit will continue with a meeting with
the NGO representatives at the Defender’s Office in Kapan, and then the
delegation will leave for Goris.
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