To support the goal of promoting non-discrimination and religious tolerance in Armenia and support to the awareness-raising about the discrimination issues and the promoting the adoption of the new draft on anti-discrimination, over the period of September-November, 2015, EPF Armenia conducted three round-table discussions on the issues of non-discrimination for several stakeholders and coordinated additional activities, namely trainings for journalists and CSOs conducted by Helsinki Committee of Armenia (HCA).
The overall goal of the project was to brief the main stakeholders and the general public about the issues of discrimination in Armenia and identify ways of tackling the obstacles on the road of adopting non-discrimination legislation. One of the objectives of the project was to discuss the ‘Equality Law’ (anti-discrimination law) currently being drafted by EPF with a multilateral working group which includes lawyers, representatives of civil society, media, international organizations, and the Ministry of Justice.
Three round-table discussions were organized within the scope of this project. EPF engaged larger layers of civil society, such as NGOs which are part of EaP Civil Society Forum’s National Platform, independent journalists, and watch-dog organizations. The events generated lively debate around the issues of non-discrimination and on the issue of how to arrange a credible public campaign for the adoption of the Equality law. Moreover, the participants of the roundtable discussions received necessary information on anti-discrimination legislation, specifically the legal research and the expert survey (Armenian) conducted during the previous project implemented by EPF with the support of the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.