IWPR: 24 September 2010 - Round Table Discussion - LGBT community problems in Armenia

I'd like to commend IWPR for this initiative and look forward to 24 September. (For Armenian version of press release - see comments section below.)

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Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) Armenia Branch is inviting you to participate in a round table discussion on Armenia’s LGBT community (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders) problems and possible ways of their solution which will take place at 14:00, on 24 September, 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. To show employment problems community currently deals with IWPR’s Caucasus Reporting Service published an article “Armenian Gays Face Intolerance, Discrimination in July, 2010 (http://iwpr.net/report-news/armenian-gays-face-intolerance-discrimination).

[Unzipped: Gay Armenia - for my reflections on IWPR article, see IWPR on employment discrimination because of sexual orientation in Armenia]

LGBT community often faces intolerance in Armenian society. Thus, US embassy emphasizes in its Human Rights 2009 report 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.”

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 thought on issues related to sex reassignment surgery (SRS), legal and other obstacles that make impossible to perform transsexual 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.

Discussion will take place at IWPR’s Armenia Branch office, 39 Yeznik Koghbatsi St, Yerevan, Armenia.

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 government to account, demanding constructive solutions, strengthening civil society and securing human rights.

For additional information please apply to Sara Khojoyan or Zara Ghazaryan

Institute for War and Peace Reporting Armenia Branch
39 Yeznik Koghbatsi, 0010, Yerevan, Armenia
Tel/fax: +37410 53 92 04
Email: sarakhojoyan@gmail.com; zaraiwpr@gmail.com
Web site: www.iwpr.net