On 22 March 2023, over 30 representatives from 18 civil society organisations (CSOs) in Yerevan learned about the methodology and toolkit for civil society organisations, developed by the Council of Europe in co-operation with Women Against Violence Europe Network (WAVE) and UN Women, to run awareness raising campaigns to promote the values, aims and main provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention).

Representatives of international and national organisations participated in the seminar: Anca Ciupa from WAVE Network presented the methodology, Klara Hlavačková, Czech Women’s Lobby and Iliana Balabanova, Bulgarian Women's Lobby shared their experience, lessons learned and challenges on raising awareness and lobbying using the methodology in their respective countries.

“We, the civil society organisations, have a key role to support the state authorities in raising awareness about gender-based violence and domestic violence, improving the state response to this phenomenon” – Hasmik Gevorgyan, Program Manager in Women Support Centre NGO said, - “and this methodology comes to help us with this role”.

Following this seminar, the Council of Europe is planning to launch a call for proposals to support awareness-raising and advocacy initiatives of Armenian CSOs in promoting the Istanbul Convention by generating positive narratives and dispelling myths and misinformation.

The seminar and call for proposals are organised in the framework of the Council of Europe project “Ending violence against women and promoting gender equality in Armenia”.