During the last decade many institutions and organizations in the Republic of Armenia have been carrying out peacebuilding projects. However, their efficiency remains one of the urgent questions.
The goal of this research is to study and analyze peacebuilding initiatives implemented in Armenia in the last 5 years (2012-2017) reflecting on their gender component and existing challenges.
The research has been carried out on the initiative of Society Without Violence NGO and Global Network of Women Peacebuilders in the frames of the “Local, National and Regional Strategies to Improve the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine” project funded by the Austrian Development Agency.
Society Without Violence NGO in cooperation with ILGA Europe organized a training session on May 4-6 in Aghveran, Armenia for psychologists, psychotherapists and sexologists. The session was led by two doctors with extensive experience in the field of medicine and human rights.
Dr. Stepan Matevosyan is a psychologist, psychotherapist and sexologist, as well as the director of the Endo-psychiatric Center of Moscow City. Dr. Vahe Asryan is a sexologist and a sitting member of Armenian Association of Sexologist.
The topics of the discussions were diverse. Dr. Asryan opened the sessions with his talk on “Sexual Orientation, Myths and Realities.” He presented the societal and political level of discrimination in Armenia, and then connected it to the health sector and further discussed the medical needs of homosexual persons. The discussion made it clear that the participants were not aware of the differences between gender identity and sexual orientation. In addition, the participants were unaware of the emotional and mental aspect of one's sexual orientation.
Next, Dr. Stepan Matevosyan led the second module on “Gender Identity, Myths and Reality” and also talked about “The Importance of Doctors’ Awareness During their Work with LGBT People.” This presentation brought about a heated discussion about discrimination against LGBT people.
During the session the medical needs of LGBT+ people were also discussed. Doctors’ indifference and lack of compassion, domestic pressure, lack of knowledge and the fear of being discovered were outlined.
In conclusion, the level of satisfaction of the participants was extremely high. They concluded that this type of sessions should be held more often in medical institutions and give knowledge about the medical needs of LGBT people.