Piotr Świtalski: There are problems regarding discriminatory fetal sex-selection in Armenia

There are discriminatory fetal sex-selection issues in Armenia. This was stated at the launch of the Advisory Committee session on “Combating discrimination against fetal sex selection,” by head of the EU Delegation, Ambassador Piotr Świtalski.

“The problem of fetal sex-selection discrimination in a healthy society is on a much lower level. In this regard Armenia is a problematic country. I had heard that there are bad statistics is Armenia, society suffers. Every year Armenia loses 1,400 girls, which is bad; it weakens a healthy balance, which should be present from a gender perspective. The EU is here to help Armenia’s government and society to carry out the modernization process, to promote the problem solving”, reports the Ambassador saying.

According to Piotr Świtalski, 750 thousand Euros were allocated for the implementation of the EU program.

“One of the directions of the program is raising awareness. I would like to mention that everything that you are doing within the framework of this program is greatly appreciated by the EU”, he said.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, during the Advisory Committee session of “Combating discrimination against fetal sex-selection” ,statistics of abortions and previously implemented programs and achievements were presented to the Committee and partner organizations.

Sergey Khachatryan, Deputy Minister of Healthcare called on the participants to carry out daily works to increase the role of women.

“For a long time we have been talking about sex-selective abortion, today there should be some results to summarize and understand to what extent the works have been effective. It is a very pleasant fact that the numbers are decreasing, “he said.

Numerous organizations and NGOs are involved in the “Combating discrimination against fetal sex-selection” program. The aim of the program is to decrease the number of abortions based on sex-selection.