Training programme “Women in the Police System” launched

On 8 November, the 5-day training programme "Women in the Police System" was launched with the participation of First Deputy Minister of Justice Kristinne Grigoryan. U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia Lynne Tracy was also attending the event. Representatives of the Police, the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Office of the U.S. Embassy in Armenia, as well as female officers of the Patrol Service, the Educational Complex of the Police and the Police also participated in the event.

In her welcoming speech, the Deputy Minister, presenting brief statistics on the involvement of women in the legislative, executive and judicial branches of power, emphasised that gender-sensitive approaches, not limited to only quotas, should be applied in all sectors. At the same time, she added that the talk about the activity of women in their careers is not about the formal aspect at all, but about meaningful participation, the foundation of which is merit-based promotion.

In the context of the aforementioned, Deputy Minister Grigoryan touched upon the approach of the Government to setting 30% of competition places for women in the competition for selection of officers during the introduction of the Patrol Service, noting that more than 80% of the names on the list of names of students with the best progress in the Educational Complex of the Police are women and girls, but in the future and higher degrees of their careers, they are not so intensively represented in senior positions of service. Nevertheless, the Deputy Minister stated that even though the result was far from being expected, she expressed confidence that, thanks to the efforts being made, the proportion of the involvement of women will also grow, in parallel with the first stage.

In her speech, U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Tracy attached importance to the values and perspectives that women bring to any field, including the law-enforcement system, as well as emphasised the need for equality in the workplace.

Summing up, Kristinne Grigoryan expressed gratitude to the U.S. Embassy for the initiative and wished the female officers success. Expressing full support to such initiatives on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, she also emphasised that there are no good or bad police officers due to gender and urged women to be bold and active.