Gender Politics in Armenia By: Ani Jilozian 2017
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Gender Politics in Armenia By: Ani Jilozian By: Ani 2017 An Exploration of Legislation, Anti-Gender Rhetoric, and Community Strategies By Ani Jilozian Chapter 1 The impact of anti-gender sentiments on legal and normative frameworks Chapter 2 Exacerbating factors and main threats to progress Chapter 3 An in-depth look at the anti-gender campaign Chapter 4 Lessons learned: What strategies can we harness to tackle anti-genderism in Armenia? 4 Table of contents Table of contents .07 Executive Summary a. Gender equality .10 b. Anti-discrimination .13 .09 c. Domestic violence .16 d. Sexual and reproductive health and rights .22 a. Lack of political will .28 b. Historical legacies .29 .27 c. Perceived State interference into “family matters” .30 d. Semantic confusion .31 e. Growing discontentment with “European values” .32 f. Lack of a women’s movement .33 g. Nationalistic ideology .35 h. Nation-Army concept .36 i. The backdrop of neoliberalism .37 a. Mobilization strategies .40 b. Key actors .41 .39 c. Messaging strategies .46 d. Funding mechanisms .48 a. Targeting specific segments of the population .52 b. Choosing the right message .55 .51 c. Evidence-based and innovative mobilization strategies .61 d. Strategic alliances & lobbying .62 e. Reframing the donor agenda .66 .71 Conclusion Annex: Key informants involved in .73 the research study 5 Executive Summary Executive Summary In today’s semi-democratic Armenia, women’s and with the European Union (EU).1 Since the 2013 anti- LGBT rights have come under coordinated attacks by gender campaign in Armenia coincided with Armenia’s conservative, Russian-backed propaganda and propped sharp U-turn away from the EU and subsequent up by local right-wing populists and ultra-nationalist entrance into the EAEU, experts largely agree that extremists. Attacks on gender ideology – used as a gender issues were artificially raised on the agenda to political tool to generate distrust towards the West arouse fear, align conservative masses, and distract and deter public attention from corrupt practices – public attention from political realities.2 hinders the passage of progressive laws and the proper implementation of international treaties. The present study explores the manipulated discourses around gender issues used to mobilize the public and In recent years, Armenia has seen a considerable secure political power and examines the impact on backsliding in several areas, as reflected by its gender policymaking and restrictions on women’s and LGBT equality indicators and lack of legal mechanisms to rights in Armenia. Linking the anti-gender campaign ensure rights and non-discrimination. Presently, with new developments in Armenia, the study employs Armenia has not adopted standalone laws on domestic a multi-tiered approach to analyze the phenomenon in violence and anti-discrimination, and new provisions an effort to inform strategies and effectively respond to to the abortion law risk a rise in unsafe and illegal future attacks in Armenia. abortions. The research methodology is comprised of a desk Where de jure equality is secured, de facto equality review of current normative frameworks on gender has yet to be achieved. A case in point is the largely legislation as well as a qualitative component, wherein unimplemented Law on Equal Rights and Equal 22 in-depth, semi-structured interviews were carried Opportunities for Women and Men (formerly known out with chosen experts in the field. The key informants as the Gender Equality Law). Around the time of the who took part in the study include women’s and LGBT law’s adoption, the meaning of the term “gender” NGO representatives, individual activists, journalists, was distorted by ultra-nationalist groups and used to academics, and government officials. (See the annex on galvanize the masses around the idea that those fighting page 73 for the full list of interviewed experts.) for equality were destroying the fabric of Armenian society. This led authorities to remove the term from The report is organized into four major thematic legal documents and culminated in what has come to categories: 1) the impact of the anti-gender be known as the “war on gender” or the anti-gender campaign on policymaking and the restriction of campaign. rights; 2) exacerbating factors and main threats to progress; 3) an analysis of mobilization strategies, key As the ripple effect from the anti-gender campaign was actors, messaging, and funding mechanisms; and 4) still being felt, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan recommendations based on the external research and announced that Armenia would be joining the Eurasian key stakeholder interviews geared toward activists and Economic Union (EAEU) alongside Russia, Belarus, and donor organizations to offer solutions to the range of Kazakhstan, instead of signing a partnership agreement problems presented. 1Gohar Abrahamyan, Struggle against gender or anti- Tamara Hovnatanyan, and Gayane Meroyan. The Monitoring and the UN Convention on the Political Rights of Women European propaganda?, Hetq.am, August 17, 2015. of the implementation of the recommendations of the in the Republic of Armenia, Armenian Association of 2Jemma Hasratyan, Lilith Zakarian, Gayane Armaganova, Beijing Platform for Action, Millennium Development Goals Women with University Education, 2014. 7 8 Chapter 1 The impact of anti-gender sentiments on legal and normative frameworks a. Gender Equality Gender inequality pervasive in much discourse on the need for a law on gender Armenian society equality and increasing international pressure to tackle related issues.9 To show their support, the State put The 2016 Global Gender Gap Report ranks Armenia at forth the 2011-2015 Republic of Armenia (RA) Gender 102 out of 144 countries, having the worst performance Policy Strategic Action Plan and in 2013 adopted among countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.3 the Law on Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities There is widespread discrimination against women for Women and Men (formerly known as the Gender in the economic, political, social, and other spheres Equality Law). The law, which is firmly grounded in of Armenian society, as revealed by the 2015 Gender a number of United Nations, Council of Europe and Barometer Survey.4 Deep-rooted beliefs about European Union documents, aims to ensure equal traditional family values drive gender stereotypes and rights and opportunities for women and men in enforce the notion that men should be dominant and politics, public administration, labor and employment, women subservient and submissive.5 Justifications for entrepreneurship, health care, and education, among inequality are frequently based on cultural and social other fields.10 norms that socialize men to be aggressive, powerful, unemotional, and controlling and women to be passive, Initially cooperative, the State accepted the nurturing, submissive, emotional, powerless, and recommendations submitted to them by civil society dependent on men.6 The unequal power relationship experts and were cordial toward them at the public between men and women is reinforced by a number of hearing held in early 2013.11 However, by the second public factors, including the Armenian schooling system and hearing in May 2013, amid conservative outcries and mass media. 7 purposeful distortion, State officials, including members of the working group responsible for drafting the law,12 called for the term “gender” to be excluded in legal documents Law on Equal Rights and Equal and the name of the law changed, rather than work to Opportunities for Women and Men raise awareness among the public about gender policies.13 Conservatives were especially outraged at the language Armenia was an early adopter and signatory to used in Article 3 of the Law, which stated that gender is international treaties and human rights norms dealing an “acquired, socially fixed behavior of different sexes”, 8 14 with gender. By the mid-2000s, there was already believing that “acquired” was “code for homosexuality.” 3WEF, The Global Gender Gap Report 2016, World 9Vladimir Osipov, interview, 2017 and Nvard Manasian, 12Arman Gharibyan, interview, 2017. Economic Forum, 2016. interview, 2017. 13Jemma Hasratyan, Lilith Zakarian, Gayane 4CGLS, Gender Barometer Survey: A Sociological Survey, 10Jemma Hasratyan, Lilith Zakarian, Gayane Armaganova, Tamara Hovnatanyan, and Gayane Center for Gender and Leadership Studies, 2015. Armaganova, Tamara Hovnatanyan, and Gayane Meroyan. The Monitoring of the implementation of the 5CEDAW Task Force Armenia, Armenia Non Government Meroyan. The Monitoring of the implementation of the recommendations of the Beijing Platform for Action, Organizations’ Shadow Report to CEDAW, 2016. recommendations of the Beijing Platform for Action, Millennium Development Goals and the UN Convention 6Ibid. Millennium Development Goals and the UN Convention on the Political Rights of Women in the Republic 7Ibid. on the Political Rights of Women in the Republic of Armenia, Armenian Association of Women with 8Nona Shahnazaryan, Aygyun Aslanova, and Edita of Armenia, Armenian Association of Women with University Education, 2014. Badasyan, Under the Rainbow Flags: LGBTI Rights in University Education, 2014. 14Marianna Grigoryan, Armenia: Fight against Gender- the South Caucasus, Caucasus Edition – Journal of 11Anna Harutyunyan, Unearthing the Gender discourse Equality Morphs into Fight Against EU, Eurasianet.org, Conflict Transformation, 2016. in Armenia: from Hysteria to Constructive Dialogue, October 11, 2013.