DURING THE CONFERENCE REPRESENTATIVE OF RA MINISTRY OF DEFENSE SPEAKS ABOUT CONCEPT OF LIVING IN NON-VIOLENT SOCIETY

The meeting was held at YSU Paleans Hall. The female cadets of the military educational establishments were present at the meeting too. At the beginning of the meeting Mr. Avetisyan greeted the students, introduced himself and added that he is also a part-time Associate Professor at the Faculty of Sociology of YSU. He stressed that the meeting is an open lecture-discussion and he expected students’ active participation.

“A sixteen-day action “against violence” has started in Armenia. The Ministry of Defense together with the UN Populations Fund for about 6 years has been carrying out the actions related to women’s rights defense in the Armed Forces”, informed the head of the RA MoD Human Rights and Good Behavior Centre.

According to him, such meetings aim at general awareness. The head of the Chair of Applied Sociology of the Faculty of Sociology of YSU Arthur Atanesyan who was present at the conference and the executive representative of the UN Populations Fund Office Tsovinar Harutyunyan greeting those present expressed hope that conference will be effective for everyone.

“For many years, the world has been marking the period from November 25 to December 10 as sixteen-day action against women and girls violence during which a number of actions are carried out in the capital and in provinces”.

It was said that they were going to carry out three actions with the MoD, one of which was today’s event at YSU.

The head of the Chair of Applied Sociology Arthur Atanesyan stressed the importance of holding this discussion at YSU. The chairman of “Support and Rights” NGO Sergey Harutyunyan who was present at the event the atmosphere in the places where women officers work is always positive.

During the event Alik Avetisyan briefly presented the Resolution 1325 of the UN Security Council, which was accepted on October 31, 2000 and became the main factor round which countries started to build their strategies. The Resolution of the SC has 4 main directions: participation, protection, prevention and restoration.

These directions were presented to the students during the meeting. In the end everyone had the same opinion that the aim of similar events is not to have sex-based artificial obstacles for professional growth. During the second part of the conference the students were presented the videos related to the prevention of sex violence against women. “The cases of sex violence in the Army of Defense of Armenia are rare, however every time speaking on this theme we promote elimination of stereotypes in the society. Violence is the extremal form of discrimination. All our efforts are aimed at having a non-violence society”, was emphasized in the video materials.

It was also spoken about the creation of mechanisms which will help reveal and prevent violence. Research made by the MoD was presented according to which the thinking and outlook of female cadets is changed when they start their military service. At the beginning they outline that to serve in the Armed Forces they need strong will and physical strength, ability not to give in, later, when they are at military units they outline that the most important features are tolerance, ability to fit in and modesty.

The students addressed their questions to the MoD representative. Alik Avetisyan promised to answer the rest of the questions during the next meeting.