One of the priorities of the Human Rights Defender’s activities are the issue of enhancing the women’s role, eliminating discrimination, ensuring their rights and freedoms.
The society preserves the stereotype that the military service is designed only for men. Though there is a more positive attitude towards the issue of women engagement in armed forces, women in the armed forces and especially among the high-ranking commanders are still a minority.
Consistent measures should be undertaken towards enhancing women’s role in the armed forces. Therefore, the main recommendations of the Human Rights Defender’s annual report are the following.
1. to prescribe by law, that in case of moving one of the serving spouses into a new place, a decision is made to move the husband/wife into the same place with their consent, if the permanent place of residence changes. If it is not possible, moving into a new serving place does not take place,
2. to prescribe by law, that spouses serving in different systems are assigned to the service in military units as close to each other as possible, so that they can reside together,
3. to comply the provision of goods to the female militaries with the provision of goods of the male militaries on an equivalent service,
4. to separate the frequency of the provision of goods to the servicemen serving in military units and those that are not serve in military units;
5. to increase the information covering women’s daily military routine via mass media emphasizing the key role of the women in the military service,
6. to make an active commitment to change the mindset in every commanding level and change the internal culture of the armed forces so that all the differences are perceived positively and considered,
7. to include training on gender equality in every stage of military education and ensure teaching by both men and women at the institutions of military education,
8. to make all the positions of the armed forces of the RA in all types of troops available for women,
9. to take measures to recruit women and include them in the roles where they have been excluded before, to observe the physical standards while recruiting for those positions and the feasibility of the pilot projects to foster women’s recruitment in those positions,
10. to include topics on equality, in this case, issues concerning women rights in the discussions and trainings on the military service.