On October 27, 2025, the Rights Centre NGO organized a workshop on gender-sensitive court proceedings. The Rights Centre is currently finalizing a training manual intended for judges. The purpose of the manual is to present the specificities of gender-sensitive proceedings by incorporating legal and psychological approaches, to improve the judicial examination of domestic violence and other relevant cases, and to assist courts in ensuring the right to a fair trial for all without discrimination, preventing revictimization, and strengthening public trust in the justice system.

The opening remarks were delivered by the Rights Centre Program Director Tatevik Gharibyan, and the Executive Director of the OxYGen Foundation, Margarita Hakobyan. Vice-Rector of the Justice Academy, Margarit Amyan, presented the Academy’s commitment to integrating the manual into its training programs.

The authors of the manual — PhD and Associate Professor, Narine Aleksanyan, judicial expert and psychologist Ani Vardanyan, and Judge of the Court of Cassation, Liza Grigoryan — presented the main topics, challenges, and proposed solutions included in the Manual.

The discussion brought together judges, lawyers, representatives of the Judicial Department, the Police, as well as civil society organizations.

The discussion was concluded with a Q&A session between the participants and the speakers.

The sub-grant project “Improving the Judicial Response to Gender-Based and Domestic Violence Cases in Armenia” is implemented by the Rights Center NGO within the framework of the “EQUAL-EU 4 Women Empowerment” project. The project is implemented by the OxYGen Foundation, the European Partnership for Democracy NGO, the Netherlands Helsinki Committee NGO, the Women’s Support Center – Yerevan, the Winnet Goris Development Foundation in cooperation with the Winnet Sweden NGO.

The project is funded by the EU.