Map source: Human Rights Watch

last updated February 15, 2004

During its post-transition years, Armenia has been faced with many new challenges. The social and economic dislocations resulting from the transition process coupled with the effects of the 1988 earthquake and the repercussions of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict have greatly affected the social structure of Armenia. Unfortunately, the brunt of the problems has fallen on women, and women's status has suffered considerably. The International Organization for Migration has conservatively estimated that between 800,000 and one million people have migrated from Armenia since 1991, a substantial number in a country of less than four million individuals. According to the United Nations Development Programme, the vast majority of those that emigrate are men. This large-scale migration has, in turn, left many women without support or assistance in household responsibilities and childcare. These burdens are most acutely felt in rural areas where international and national efforts to assist women are not as plentiful and where the pressure for men and women to adopt stereotypical roles is especially great.

Discrimination
According to the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative, Armenian law grants women de jure equality including equal entitlement to education, health care, employment and certain anti-discrimination protection. However Armenian women continue to face de facto discrimination in part due to established norms and expectations of gender roles. The Helsinki Committee of Armenia reported that women’s representation in the legislative branch of the government is only 4.6%, the lowest in the region. The Armenian Constitution provides for equal rights for both women and men in Articles 3, 4, 15, 16 and 32, granting citizens suffrage, protection of human rights, civil equality, protection under law and equality in marriage. Although women possess few high-ranking government positions, they have thrived in the nongovernmental sector according to the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative. An active civil society is emerging in Armenia largely run by women and is indicative of the increasing maturity of those organizations struggling for change in women’s lives.

Domestic Violence
It is difficult to gauge the prevalence of violence against women in Armenia in large part because relatively few cases are reported, particularly cases of domestic violence. According to The Advocates for Human Rights, several Armenian NGOs, including the Women’s Rights Center, have found that a significant number of Armenian women admit to experiencing domestic violence when surveyed. The Women’s Rights Center’s 1998 survey of one hundred women found that forty-six had experienced some sort of violence in the family and that only six had reported that violence to legal authorities. It is widely reported that corruption plays a large role in the criminal justice response because batterers may bribe the judge, prosecutor and police to dismiss the charges or to not investigate the abuse. The Criminal Code contains no specific legal provisions concerning domestic violence, although the law does prohibit infliction of willful light damage to health (Article 117) and battery (Article 118). Penalties for battery range from fines, correctional labor for up to a year or imprisonment for two months. There is no indication that any domestic violence shelters exist in Armenia. The 2000 The Advocates for Human Rights’ report on domestic violence in Armenia notes that the Armenian government does not support NGO efforts to assist victims.

Sexual Assault
The Armenian Criminal Code prohibits rape in Article 138, violent sexual acts in Article 139 and forced violent sexual acts in Article 140. These provisions are often applied when prosecuting cases of domestic violence. Under Articles 138, 139 and 140 of the Criminal Code, punishment for rape ranges from three to fifteen years, depending on the nature of the crime. Child sexual abuse is covered under these Articles, where, for example, rape of a minor carries a greater punishment of eight to fifteen years imprisonment.

Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is not specifically prohibited in the Armenian Criminal Code.  There is no article in the Criminal Code that specifically prohibits sexual harassment.  Article 140, however, can be used to punish "forced violent acts."  It states: " Forcing a person to engage in sexual intercourse, homosexuality, lesbianism or other sexual actions, by means of blck mail, threats to destroy, damage or seize property, or using financial dependence or other dependence of the aggrieved, is punishable by a fine in the amount of 200 to 300 minimal salaries, correctional labor for up to two years, or imprisonment for the term of up to one year."

Trafficking in Women
Armenia is both a transit country and a source country for victims of trafficking. Armenian victims of trafficking are commonly trafficked into Turkey or the United Arab Emirates although some victims are also trafficked to Russia, Greece and other European countries. There is no conclusive data regarding the number of women trafficked from Armenia. Not until 2003 did Armenia address human trafficking in its Criminal Code. The 2003 Criminal Code covers kidnapping and trafficking under Articles 131 and 132, respectively, and punishments range from fines to correctional labor for up to one year to imprisonment from one to four years. Punishments increase depending on the degree of organization of the trafficking group, the violence with which the victims are trafficked and the age of those trafficked. The most severe punishment for death of a trafficked victim or for an organized group is five to eight years. Additionally, Article 168 specifically forbids child trafficking and provides for increases in punishments to three to seven years imprisonment. On 14 January 2004, the Armenian government approved an Action Plan for Prevention of Trafficking in Persons from the Republic of Armenia for 2004-2006. 

Compiled from:

Criminal Code, Republic of Armenia, (Draft dated 11 April 2003, Adopted August 2003) (HTML, 34 Chapters). 

Integration of the Human Rights of Women and the Gender Perspective - Violence Against Women, United Nations Commission for Human Rights, (E/CN.4/2003/75/Add.1) (27 Feb. 2003) (HTML). 

Women’s Rights: Human Rights in Armenia 2003. Armenian Helsinki Committee. Issue #12 (2003)(HTML). 

A Human Rights Report on Trafficking of Persons, Especially Women and Children, The Protection Project, (March 2002). (HTML). 

Trafficking in Women and Children from the Republic of Armenia: A Study, International Organization of Migration, 2001. (PDF, 72 pages).

Domestic Violence in Armenia, The Advocates for Human Rights, (December 2000) (PDF 53 pages).

Common Country Assessment: Republic of Armenia, United Nations Development Programme, (Section 1.4.1) (2000) (PDF, 68 pages).

A Form of Slavery: Trafficking in Women in OSCE Member States, The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, prepared for the OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on Trafficking in Human Beings, Vienna, (19 June 2000). (Available in HTML and PDF, 86 pages).

“Capacity Building of the Gender in Development Unit in Armenia,” United Nations Development Programme, Project of the Government of Armenia, p. 1 (ARM/96/020/B/01/99) (January 1997-January 2000). (HTML, 14 pages). 

For questions or comments regarding this page, please contact the Women's Rights Center at wrcarm@arminco.com