Responses from administration of the president and ministries on protection of LGBT human rights

22-07-2015

lgbtflag“Necessary prerequisites exist in RA legislation to exclude any act of discrimination” is said in a response from the Administration of the President of the Republic of Armenia to the call of PINK Armenia to protect LGBT rights.

To mark the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia in May, PINK Armenia addressed a letter to the President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, some ministries and deputies of the National Assembly, with a call to provide in the Republic of Armenia legal regulations for combating discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and to monitor cases of discrimination against LGBT people. We were reminded from the Administration of the President that “if there is a need for further legislative regulations, it should be noted that the president of the Republic of Armenia has no right to initiate legislation”.

PINK Armenia also urged President Serzh Sargsyan not to award national prizes to individuals and organizations who spread blatant hate speech against LGBT citizens of Armenia and the persons involved in the protection of their rights, to which Head of Legal Department of the President’s staff Grigor Muradyan clarified in the response letter that the person’s worldview is not considered when awarding prizes “if that person does not display any illegal behavior which is to become a subject of assessment of authorities in each specific case”.

Before that the letter of the organization had a response from Ministry of Health and Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia.

The Ministry of Justice that they have conducted a legal study on relevance of having a separate piece of legislation to combat discrimination, where the matters regarding discrimination have been analyzed.

The Ministry also reminded that in 2010 the Gender Policy Concept Paper was approved and Republic of Armenia Gender Policy Strategic Program for 2011-2015 was confirmed.

The letter from the Ministry of Health stated that the issue settlement is outside the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health. However, the Ministry of Health is willing to provide assistance if recommendations from relevant bodies are made.