U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, joined the U.S. Embassy, Counterpart International, the British Embassy, the OSCE, and the EU to honor individuals working to promote human rights, accountable governance, and free speech in Armenia at the Universal Rights Awards Ceremony at the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan. Secretary Clinton delivered remarks at the event and met privately with the award recipients. The Universal Rights Awards Ceremony was the first multi-mission initiative to highlight the contributions of Armenia’s civil rights activists, government officials, and media representatives to the promotion of human rights. Armenian government officials, foreign diplomats, NGO representatives, and the press attended the event.
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Well deserved Awardees. Big congrats!!
*** Freedom Defender Award - Artur Sakunts
USAID/Armenia Mission Director, Jatinder Cheema, opened the ceremony and awarded Artur Sakunts with the Freedom Defender Award. “Artur defends all minorities, especially those that are the target of intolerance, such as ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities. He is not afraid to take unpopular stances, working constantly for a more tolerant Armenia,” said Director Cheema.
Woman of Courage Award - Tsovinar Nazaryan
Counterpart International’s Chief of Party, Alex Sardar, presented the Woman of Courage Award to Tsovinar Nazaryan for her military reform efforts. “Tsovinar should be proud of her role in encouraging the military to embrace reform, which will lead to a more modern, effective, and humane force for Armenia,” Mr. Sardar said.
Award for media excellence - Epress.am
Presenting the award for media excellence to the editors of Epress.am -- Sonya Apresova, Yuri Manvelyan, and Armen Melikbekyan -- the Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, Ambassador Andrey Sorokin, commended them for their fair and balanced coverage and commitment to human rights reporting. Ambassador Sorokin stated, “Epress’s coverage of human rights plays an important role in informing the public and contributing to public debate. This type of reporting is an important element in Armenia’s democratic transformation.”
*based on Hetq Online, pictures - by Counterpart International Armenia FB page
This is truly a Quote of the Day. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a terrific speech today marking LGBT Month.
"Just as I was very proud to say the obvious more than 15 years ago in Beijing that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights, well, let me say today that human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights, once and for all."
She reiterated US administration's support for advancing gay rights worldwide and in the US. You may read full transcript of her speech here.
MS. GREENBERG: Our next sounding board entry comes from Selim Ariturk, an economic officer in Azerbaijan. He says, “Madame Secretary, gay and lesbian staff worldwide have been so heartened by the wonderful changes you have made since you took office. I can’t tell you how much it means to me when I look at my HR records and finally see the word ‘family member.’ More than any of the financial benefits, those two words say so much about the kind of atmosphere you have set. Thank you so much for all you have done. Many of us still face problems coming home to the U.S. with our partners, and I wonder if you could help us by talking to Congress about the challenges we face. Thank you for your consideration and thank you again for all you’ve done.”
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, and thanks to everyone who has supported and embraced this policy change. I’ve met with people across the world at every – just about every post I’ve visited, which are a lot by now. And we will continue to follow up on issues that arise, but we’re very proud that the State Department led the way on this.
Maxim Anmeghichean is Moldovan of Armenian origin. He is a Programmes Director at ILGA-Europe (Europe’s main gay rights group).
After graduating from Moldovan State University with dual-degrees in journalism and communication sciences, Max has devoted all of his professional life to the LGBT movement. He led the team that created the LGBT movement in Moldova; developing it into a respected and powerful national and regional organization.
Nationally, he has served on the NGO Council, the National AIDS Network, and on the board of the National Youth Council. As an ILGA-Europe board member for the past three years, he chaired the committee to develop the organization's Eastern European strategy, lobbied before the Council of Europe and the European Union and was instrumental in fundraising efforts. In his new post, Max's priorities are to lobby for LGBT rights in Eastern Europe before the OSCE, Council of Europe and EU, develop programs for the transgender community, build advocacy capacity and, as if that's not enough to keep him busy, fundraising!
On 6 March 2009, Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, participated in a meeting with young Europeans hosted by the European Parliament. Max was one of the participants.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was pretty excited by the fact that Max was wearing a T-shirt saying “I love Hillary”, so she said she simply had to take a question from him. And Max used this chance perfectly by posing a question on how the US foreign policy in the field of sexual rights and LGBT issues is going to change under a new administration.
Whatever one may think of Hillary Clinton, wearing a T-shirt saying “I love Hillary” was a very smart move by Maxim Anmeghichean, to be noticed and heard. Well done, Max, you are an inspiration for many.
Max stood up and said: "My name is Max. I am from Moldova, and I am a gay rights activist. In seven countries in the world homosexuals are sentenced to death and many more to prison. A lot of gay men around the world die because of the HIV AIDS policies that the Bush administration had that did not allow to spend money on prevention for men who have sex with men. How do you see the foreign policy of the United States changing in the coming years in the field of human rights and in particular sexual rights and gay and lesbian rights?"
Ms Clinton said that it is unfortunate and unfair that discrimination against gay and lesbian people still exists around the word and sometimes is even condoned or protected by the states: "Human rights is and always will be one of the pillars of our foreign policy. And in particular, the persecution and discrimination against gays and lesbians is something that we take very seriously. It is terribly unfortunate, as you just recited, that right now in unfortunately many places in the world violence against gays and lesbians, certainly discrimination and prejudice are not just occurring but condoned and protected.” She went on to say that it will be one of the priorities for the administration to tackle the issue and some changes in the policy on HIV prevention have already started. She also expressed a hope that she will witness the day when any type of discrimination, including on the ground of who one loves, will be abolished: "I can only hope that we all live long enough to see the end to this kind of discriminatory treatment and recognition that human rights are the inalienable rights of every person no matter who that person loves."
Financial Times Brussels Blog called Max’s Q&A with Hillary Clinton “the best moment” of the meeting. "Clinton’s performance was brilliantly executed in that she pitched her message at exactly the level the European audience wanted. They wanted to hear an American talk like a European, and that’s what they got."
Full coverage of this meeting is available on the European Parliament’s website (Max’s question stars around 11:10:43)
“The real violence… the violence that I realised was unforgivable is the violence that we do to ourselves, when we are too afraid to be who we really are.” #Sense8
Մարտիրոս Սարյան: "Իմ կարծիքով, մեզ՝ որպես արևելյան ժողովրդի, չափազանց կպատշաճեր բազմագույն դրոշը, որն ի հայտ է բերում ինքը` չքնաղ և հավերժ գեղեցիկ ծիածանը:"(source)
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