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Round Table Discussion on “Hate Crimes and Other Human Rights Violation Cases against LGBTIQ+ People in Armenia”

On March 31 of this year, the International Transgender Day of Visibility,  the “Right Side” human rights defender NGO organized a round-table discussion with the participation of representatives of the European Union Delegation, the Embassy of the United States of America, the Embassy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Sweden, the National Endowment for Democracy, media representatives, members of various organizations and foundations operating in the field, LGBTIQ community representatives and activists from Yerevan and different regions of Armenia.

The purpose of the conference was to raise awareness about the problems of trans people and to present the “Hate crimes against transgender LGBIQ persons and other hate crimes in Armenia” research carried out by the legal department of the Right Side organization in 2021-2022.

At the official opening of the conference, transgender activist Lilit Martirosyan – the president of the Right Side NGO, gave a speech, presenting the purpose of the round-table discussion and talking about the continuous violence and discrimination against trans people and the impact of it on quality of life of community members.

Then, the organization’s lawyer Artur Margaryan spoke about the legal cases carried out by the Right Side NGO in various RA bodies and the European Court, and Sona Harutyunyan presented the “Hate Crimes and Other Human Rights Violation cases against LGBTIQ+ People in Armenia” research, which reflected the statistics of violations against the community. The legal report followed the round table discussion “The Situation of Human Rights in Armenia”.

The representatives of “The Women’s Resource Center”, “Global Foundation for the Protection of Trans Persons’ Rights”, “Pink” human rights NGO and “FemLibrary” shared the experience of their organizations and the results of monitoring positive and negative tendencies in the field.

In the concluding part of the event, the panel discussion “The Voice of Transgender People” took place with the participation of trans activists Kimberly, Kelly, and Mary, who talked about the challenges faced by trans people in Armenia and their activism on social media and activities aimed at preventing hate speech towards the community. The conference took place in a productive atmosphere of intense dialogues, analyses, and discussions.

It should be noted that this meeting was made possible with the financial support of the Equality Fund and Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.

April 05, 2023 Armenia, Yerevan

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