Ending violence against women and promoting gender equality in Armenia

This project aims at strengthening the capacities and co-operation among stakeholders to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence, including digital violence, as enshrined in the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention), and at advancing de facto gender equality and women’s empowerment.

About the project

This new project builds on the lessons learned from the previous project "The path towards Armenia's ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence" which ended in December 2022.

The project provides support in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment (WE) and combating violence against women (VAW) and domestic violence (DV) by increasing knowledge, enhancing inter-agency co-operation line with European standards and best practices. The project's long-term impact expectation is that women in Armenia benefit from gender equality and protection against all forms of violence against women.

The project contributes to the Council of Europe’s Action Plan for Armenia for 2023–2024 so that:

Armenia is better prepared for the ratification of the Istanbul Convention;
the Armenian legal and policy framework on preventing and combating domestic violence is in line with Council of Europe standards;
women victims of gender-based violence and domestic violence, including the most disadvantaged, have better access to justice and support services;
law enforcement officers, social workers, and other relevant professionals have a better understanding of European standards and gender-sensitive approaches related to the work with victims of domestic violence and gender-based violence;
gender equality and women’s empowerment are better promoted and the Armenian legal and policy framework on gender mainstreaming in education are in line with Council of Europe standards.

The project will act in two areas:

In Area 1 (VAW/DV), the Council of Europe focuses on supporting authorities in their efforts to align their policy and institutional framework to the Istanbul Convention, providing evidence-based knowledge and promising practices. Special emphasis is put on promoting inter-agency cooperation. The project will initiate work on emerging forms of VAW following the adoption of the GREVIO General Recommendation No.1 on the digital dimension of violence against women.
In Area 2 (WE), the Council of Europe focuses on supporting authorities and civil society in their efforts to enhance women's empowerment, promoting participation of women in decision-making, and combating stereotypes and sexism which can result in gender inequality and are an obstacle to women’s full enjoyment of human rights. The support is based in particular on the Council of Europe Gender Equality Strategy (2018-2023) and its successor as of 2023, and the Recommendation CM/Rec(2019)1 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on preventing and combating sexism, as well as on promising practices from the Council of Europe member States.