On October 24, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Paruyr Hovhannisyan participated and delivered remarks at the WPL Democracy, Peace and Security Summit.

In his video message, Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan, particularly noted:

“Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen,

At the outset, let me express sincere gratitude to Women Political Leaders Network and personally to Madame Silvana Koch-Mehrin for almost one year long fruitful collaboration that will surely translate into a successful Summit in Yerevan, when conditions allow.

While choosing a theme for the Summit, Armenia and WPL intended to target the areas where women’s participation is intrinsically linked to fair and most importantly sustainable outcomes.

Deepening global insecurity and multiple humanitarian crises are affecting everyone. At the same time, inadequate responses to aggressive militarism and gross violations of human rights create an environment of impunity where women and girls are at the heightened risk of violence and abuse. Our collective goal should be to mainstream voices and agency of women who break the vicious cycles of victimhood and demand change.     

Excellences,

Human rights based approach is at the core of Armenia’s reform agenda. Gender equality stands as an important cross cutting priority for the Government. Last year we adopted the Second National Action plan for implementation of Security Council resolution 1325.

In a course of just three years Armenian people went through calamities of wars and subsequent ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as military aggression against our sovereign borders. As a means of terror and intimidation, despicable war crimes were committed by Azerbaijani military specifically targeting Armenian servicewomen. Yet, we continue to believe that pursuit of peace, consolidated democratic institutions and genuine equality make our society and our army stronger.

Armenia maintains principled positions on the need for vocal multilateral responses to most serious crimes and gross human rights violations and advocates for more effective functioning of early warning and prevention mechanisms.

All these endeavors can bring about results if the recognition that women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in decision making, security sector, peacebuilding and humanitarian domain turn into concrete actions at local, regional and multilateral levels.

Armenia stands ready to contribute to these efforts. We will be looking forward to welcoming you all in Yerevan to give a platform to everyone who’s ready to act for the cause of equality, peace and justice.

I thank you.”