Statement by Mrs. Zoya Stepanyan, Second Secretary, Permanent Mission of Armenia to the UN at the 12th Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

12 June, 2019

Madam Chair,
The CRPD continues to be the guiding international document for the Republic of Armenia while shaping its legislation and polices in this important area.
Development of human potential, including protection of rights and dignity of persons with disabilities and their social inclusion are among priorities of the Armenian Government. Armenia aims to elaborate more targeted state employment policies, introduce new programs focused on making people with disabilities more competitive through better linkage between education and labor market. Armenian legislation gives priority to the persons with disabilities when it comes to inclusion in the state-run training programs on employment. To ensure mandatory workplaces, the law also establishes quota system for all organizations, irrespective of their form of ownership.

2018 United Nations report on Disability and Development highlights the wide scope of opportunities of increased access to information and communication technologies in facilitating participation in social, cultural and political life and in provision of services to persons with disabilities. It also identifies challenges and gaps in this area. In Armenia, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs cooperates closely with UN partners to provide high quality services and information to persons with disabilities. One of the examples implemented in this regard is the mapping of organization and services for people with disabilities and creation of an information system “Socium”, a web-site that provides on-line services and is being employed as an analytical tool to assess and address the existing gaps.
The rights of persons with disabilities and issues of the physical access are the integral part of urban planning reforms in Armenia. These include revision of normative-technical documents as well as monitoring mechanisms with the aim to have more accessible urban environment.

Madam Chair,
Government of Armenia adopted human rights based approach as a fundamental principle to its policies of inclusion, equality and assistance for persons with disabilities. We view civil society organizations as core partners, collaborates and drivers for change in our country. Today we have the leading advocates for disability rights among the members of the Government. We are happy to note the positive record of cooperation with NGOs in various areas such as awareness raising, provision of alternative services, social integration and many others. We have examples when small scale movements of active citizens brought about the real change in the area of assistance to vulnerable families of children with disabilities, by spreading knowledge, fighting stigmatization, by reaching out and involving policy-makers. Today, de-institutionalization and organization of child care in the family environment are among the major priorities in the area of the rights of a child. This has particular significance for children with disabilities.

Madam Chair,
This year Armenia assumed the Chairmanship of the UN CSW64, an important junction when in 2020 UN member states will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action and reviewing the implementation of these milestone documents. We believe this will be an important moment also for a forward looking approach and commitment towards gender equality and empowerment of women and girls with disabilities.

I thank you.

MFA RA
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