Armenia
Categories Score
The full bar chart stands for 100%, and is filled by the country category score. The colour display uses the traffic light palette, with Green representing a score closer to 100% and Red a score closer to 0%.
ASYLUM
This category looks into laws that expressly include SOGISC as a qualification criteria for seeking asylum. We also take into account other legislation, policies, instruction or positive measures by state actors that are related to asylum addressing the needs and rights of LGBTI asylum seekers and refugees.
Criteria Compliance Ratio
Each pie charts stands for a category and is divided in slices by criteria. When a country complies with a criteria – fully or in some regions – the slice is coloured.
Keep in mind the criteria have different weighting factor within a category; for example, the criteria Prohibition of medical intervention without informed consent (intersex) stands for half (2.5%) of the INTERSEX BODILY INTEGRITY category weighting factor (5%). Meaning that even if a country can only comply with this specific criteria within the category (1/4 total criteria) the category scores 50%.
More information on the categories and criteria weighting factors here.
Category & Criteria Table
The table lists detailed information and insights on legislation supporting each criterion status. Please use the filters for in-depth analysis.
n/a = not applicable, meaning the criteria didn’t exist in the previous Rainbow Map edition (PROGRESSION column)
- Complies
- Applicable in some regions only
- Does not Comply
RECOMMENDATIONS
In order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Armenia, ILGA-Europe recommend:
- Adopting anti-discrimination legislation which expressly mentions SOGIESC in employment.
- Adopting a hate crime law which expressly mentions of SOGISC.
- Adopting a fair, transparent legal framework for legal gender recognition, based on a process of self-determination, free from abusive requirements (such as sterilisation, GID/medical diagnosis, or surgical/medical intervention), and including access for non-binary individuals, and allowing for name change without obstacles, including no age restriction.
Annual Review of ARMENIA
In our Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of LGBTI People in Europe and Central Asia, we examine the advances made and provide concrete examples of on-the-ground situations at national level country-by-country in the 12 months from January to December 2023.
Read our Annual Review of Armenia below more details and stories behind the Rainbow Map. You can also download the Annual Review chapter (.pdf) covering Armenia.
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The Government of the Republic of Armenia published the draft 2023-2025 Action Plan emerging from the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights, which states that an anti- discrimination law must be adopted in 2024. The plan was adopted on September 28.
Several instances of online hate speech and calls for violence against trans and LGBTIQ people were documented this year on social media sites (see here, here, and here). One video, which received tens of thousands of views, invited people to join a group in Yerevan that allegedly would “free the city from gays”.
After the murder of a trans woman on 20 August (see Bias- motivated Violence) a wave of hate speech started. People publicly justified the crime and called for further violence against the LGBTQ community, especially after the murder of trans woman Adriana.
In order to discredit Tigran Avinyan, the mayoral candidate in the mayoral elections of Yerevan, the media targeted him, suggesting he is gay.
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(See under Police and Law Enforcement)
Hate crimes continued to be a serious issue this year, with several attacks documented and criminal proceedings pending. Several incidents targeted trans people (see here and here). In March, for instance, over the span of a few days, a group of masked men physically assaulted two trans women and threatened to attack two others in Yerevan.
In July, a man live streamed beating up a trans woman in the street. On 20 August, a trans woman was murdered in the capital and her apartment was set on fire. The suspect was arrested shortly after and a criminal investigation is ongoing. On 21 August, a candlelight vigil was held in the victim’s memory but was attacked by a group. The participants repeatedly asked for police protection, but the police allegedly just stood by.
On 23 April, police raided the techno club Poligraf and beat up several young people.
Civil society demanded investigation and accountability. The club is known to be a hub for self-expression and diversity.
Pink documented 51 cases of physical, psychological and sexual violence, as well as threats of violence towards LGBT people during 2022, 23 of which were committed by family members, including one by the partner. In most cases, the parents learned about the LGBT identity of the victims and then beat, harassed, threatened, or locked them up. Legal barriers hinder organisations from addressing domestic violence cases involving LGBT minors as the parents, who are often the perpetrators, must authorise representation by another person.
RightSide NGO documented 22 cases of domestic violence cases against LGBTQ+ people.
New Generation Humanitarian NGO (NGNGO) registered 35 cases of violence against LGBTI people throughout 2023, including 16 cases of domestic violence.
NTC documented and addressed 42 cases of human rights violations, discrimination and violence against trans*, non- binary and gender-diverse people by unknown perpetrators (15), police (11), partner (10) and family members (6).
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(See under Health)
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Despite the recommendations from the Council of Europe and the OSCE, law-enforcement bodies have not implemented proper hate crimes data collection tools. Hate crimes are not recorded as such, as biased motivation is not considered an aggravating circumstance.
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The government took no steps this past year to enact legislation that would protect people from discrimination, harassment, or violence on the basis of SOGIESC. ECRI’s report on Armenia, published in March, noted with concern that the current draft of the Equality Law, stalled since 2018, does not include any of these grounds. Pink Armenia’s report, The Human Rights Situation of LGBT People in Armenia During 2022, published in May, highlighted that the police are often perpetrators of abuses against LGBT people.
Pink documented 51 cases of discrimination based on SOGI this year, of which 16 were reported to law enforcement bodies. Some of these were rejected, and others have not been processed in a meaningful way.
RightSide released several interviews with LGBTQI+ people (see here and here), who shared their life stories and experiences of discrimination and violence.
RightSide held an empowerment training for LGBTQI+ youth and a rehabilitation retreat for sex workers in April, and a Gender-inclusive Empowerment Camp in August. Pink held its third Pride Camp in June. NTC organised the second edition of Armenian Gender Academy.
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(See under Bias-motivated Violence)
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In May, the courts reviewed the decision of the Migration Service which could lead to the possible extradition of Salman Mukayev to Russia. Mukayev was previously detained by the authorities in Chechnya on charges of homosexuality and allegedly tortured.
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ECOM’s ‘Invisible Voices’ report on violations of the right to health of LGBT people in the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia in 2022 documented cases in which military medical commissions harassed, ridiculed, mistreated, blackmailed, outed, and humiliated people due to their SOGI, including examining and commenting on their genitals.
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The 8th Rainbow Forum was held in Yerevan between 30 November and December 2.
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(See also under Freedom from Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatement)
Several testimonies of LGBT people who suffered harassment, mistreatment, denial of care, and so-called ‘conversion practices at the hands of medical professionals were released in an article in June.
ECOM’s report documented a 2022 case of a trans woman who was denied medical care by a plastic surgeon and was subjected to transphobic slurs.
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The government provides temporary shelter for abused women and their children, but there are no existing support programs for LGBT people. Grassroots NGOs organise temporary accommodation to LGBT people subjected to violence on a case-to-case basis.
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ECRI’s report on Armenia highlighted that legal gender recognition is virtually impossible to access, but that the name change process became simplified.
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The online news site Epress launched a series of articles featuring the stories of LGBT students. HetQ, another online news site, launched the podcast ‘Flesh and Blood’, a series about the LGBTQA+ community in Armenia.
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(See also under Equality and Non-discrimination)
The U.S. Department of State’s annual report, released in March, raised concerns about the situation of LGBT+ people in Armenian prisons and detention centres. A civil society report published similar findings, sharing that LGBT prisoners are often placed in a separate cell and are subject to other discriminatory forms of treatment.
The Prison’s monitoring group, attached to the Ministry of Justice and with the participation of CSOs, warned once again about the mistreatment of LGBT people in penitentiary institutions.
The full Annual Review for 2024 is available here.