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On 18 March, the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the UN organized a virtual roundtable discussion entitled “Between War and Pandemic: Voices from the Field”. The event was held on the margins of the 65th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women underway in New York, the Office of the Permanent Representative of Armenia to the United Nations reported. 

Maria Victoria Cabrera (Mavic) Balleza, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP); Lindsey Snell, Investigative Journalist; Lika Zaqaryan, journalist from Artsakh; Shant Shekherdimian, Pediatric surgeon, Assistant Professor of Surgery at UCLA;  Karena Avedissian, PhD, Political Scientist; addressed the event as panelists. The discussion was moderated by Mrs. Lucy Varpetian, Chairperson of the Armenian Bar Association, a non-profit US entity.

In his opening remarks Mher Margaryan, the Permanent Representative of Armenia to the UN, noted that within the UN family, Armenia has consistently been raising the issue of strengthening the protection mechanisms, particularly the protection of rights of women affected by conflict. He empasized that the UN needs to reequip itself better in delivering on its prevention function.

The panelists reflected on the consequences of the Azerbaijani-Turkish agression against Artsakh in 2020 in the context of the of the violation rights of women and girls, including in condition of socio-economic and healthcare crises. The humanitarian impact of war and pandemic was touched upon. The discussion also focused on the challenges that women journalists face during armed conflicts, as well as on the forms of information campaigns and online violence, including hate speech, against women and girls.