Govt. to strike out term ‘gender’ from scandalous law

August 29, 2013 - 14:22 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The government of Armenia approved amendments to the Law on provision of equal rights and possibilities for men and women, adopted on May 20.

Earlier, formulation of the term ‘gender’ in the Law outraged the public as posing threat to Armenian families.

In the document, ‘gender’ was defined as “acquired, socially established behavior of persons of different sex, social expression of relations between a man and a woman, demonstrated in all aspects of public life.”

“The law abounds in the term ‘gender’ with words ‘man’ and ‘woman’ rarely used. However, the law will lose its meaning, if the term ‘gender’ is struck out,” a publicist Lia Avetisyan said.

At a governmental sitting, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Artem Asatryan suggested replacing the term ‘gender relations’ with ‘equal rights and possibilities of men and women.’

As he reminded, Yerevan joined the UN Convention on women’s rights aimed at elimination of discrimination against women, which doesn’t contain the term ‘gender.’

The bill on amendments to the Law on provision of equal rights and possibilities for men and women will be submitted to parliamentary approval during the fall session.