On 21 March 2023, the project “Ending violence against women and promoting gender equality” was officially launched in Yerevan. The project is being implemented under the Council of Europe Action Plan for Armenia 2023-2026 and its partners are the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Justice of Armenia, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, the Human Rights Defender's Office the Republic of Armenia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Investigation Committee of the Republic of Armenia.

During the first Steering Committee meeting, the project team presented the activities that will be implemented across two areas of the project: preventing and combating gender-based violence, including in digital forms and women empowerment.

Alongside project partners, civil society representatives participated in the event. Steering Committee members agreed on the terms of reference of its work and the workplan of the project, discussed activities in detail to create synergies across actors and already existing actions.

The meeting was co-chaired by Martina SCHMIDT, Head of the Council of Europe office in Armenia and Tatevik STEPANYAN, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Members. “Together with the national partners of the project, the government and civil society organisations we are on the path to make Armenia a better place to live for thousands of women,” Martina SCHMIDT highlighted in her opening remarks. Tatevik STEPANYAN pointed out that this project would help in implementation of the current Gender Equality Strategy of Armenia and preparation of the next one starting from 2024.

For more information about the project, see the project page.