Wednesday 25 March 2015

EU sees "limited" human rights progress in Armenia and calls authorities to adopt LGBT inclusive anti-discrimination legislation

In an annual report to assess the implementation of whatever remained from the European Neighbourhood Policy in Armenia, EU noted "no tangible developments in the implementation and enforcement of legislation on human rights and fundamental freedoms", and overall "limited progress on deep and sustainable democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms".

Among its recommendations, EU calls Armenia authorities to adopt and implement a "comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation":
  • adopting and implementing a comprehensive anti-discrimination law; implementing and monitoring implementation of the law on equal rights and equal opportunities for women and men, including taking further steps towards harmonising legislation in this area with the EU acquis; adopting the law on domestic violence
EU report states: "Armenia still does not have a comprehensive legal framework against discrimination. The human rights action plan only suggested assessing the compatibility of relevant Armenian legislation with international law and weighing the merits of adopting an anti-discrimination law. No measures were put in place to protect the rights of LGBTI people, while discrimination and hostility continued to be a major problem. There was also widespread discrimination against people with disabilities with regard to their economic, social and cultural rights. People with disabilities were also socially segregated in all areas." [emphasis mine]

Full report is available here.

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