Speeches

Seminar-discussion at the Ombudsman’s office
07/22/06

     An awareness raising workshop devoted to the employment problems of refugee-women took place, at the Human Rights Defender’s Office on July 22, 2006. The leaders of NGOs   dealing with the problems mentioned above participated in the seminar-discussion. Ombudsman’s Chief Advisor Georgi Kutoyan, specialists Margarita Zakaryan, Gayane Marukyan, Mary Khachatryan and Eduard Polatov took part in the discussion on behalf of the Human Rights Defender’s  staff. After the opening speech Human Rights Defender’s Chief Advisor G. Kutoyan made a report, where he presented the general provisions of the legal regulation of employment problems. He touched on  the theoretical term “private rights” and “political rights”, as well as emphasized the peculiarities  of the Constitutional  provisions  concerning the social rights. G. Kutoyan emphasized the importance of  the circumstance, that the constitutional  statement  of social rights shouldn’t have declarative character. He emphasized the necessity of the application of practical steps for their realization, and necessity of securing appropriate guarantees from State. 
     Rima Ter-Minasyan, the Vice-President of the Women’s State Council,  Vice Chairman of the Women Lawyers Council, distinguished the  term “Right of work” and “Right of free choice of  work”, and  emphasized their importance especially of employment  problems of women-refugees in the context of their realization.
She also paid the participants' attention to the debatable formulations existing in the regulation of the problems in some legal acts.
      Lusine Toplaghatsyan, the Head of the Gegharkunik branch after A.D. Sakharov Human Rights Protection Center made a report dedicated to the verification of statistic datas. The latter particularly presented the condition of women-refugees in Gegharkunik marz, mentioning that the poorest villages are populated with refugees. She also marked that in  some families of refugees the tendency to have many children-with in order to be included in the poverty family benefit system.
     Seyran Martirosyan, the Head of the Gyumri branch of A.D. Sakharov Human Rights Protection Center in his speech, touched the existing problems in region–emphasizing, that they mainly are issued from the attitude towards refugees. S. Martirosyan mentioned that in the basis of regulation of refugees’ employment problem should be at first the overcoming of language obstacles.
     Mrs. Karine Hasratyan, the representative of “Employment State Agency” of Ministry of Labor and Social Security noted in her speech that at present a tendency of involving women-refugees in the system of state bodies is going on.  As confirmation of the above, she emphasized, that in the system of their regional branches at present work five refugees. They started working with the refugee status and henceforth acquired citizenship of RA and got degree of civil servants.