UNISON NGO Armenia is implementing a national project on combating discrimination affecting disabled persons in Armenia, under all its forms, with the support of the European Union/Council of Europe joint programme Partnership for Good Governance, and its regional project “Strengthening access to justice for victims of discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes in the Eastern Partnership”.

Persons with disabilities are one of the most vulnerable communities in Armenia. They face either direct or indirect discrimination in all major fields of life: education, employment, sports, recreation, culture etc. The vast majority of state facilities, cultural venues and other public spaces are physically inaccessible to people with reduced mobility. There is no accessible public transportation for such people. Especially vulnerable are girls and women with disabilities who are subject to double discrimination - both as disabled and as females. One of the major reasons for discrimination on the grounds of disability is a lack of awareness of existing legal mechanisms to protect themselves from discrimination, as well as low awareness of what discrimination is.

In order to respond to this, the project of UNISON NGO will include the following key activities and events of the project are: survey among people with disabilities, study of the best international practices/guidelines on anti-discrimination, three workshops on different types of discrimination, a TV program, publication of a booklet, production of 3 video messages featuring people with disabilities and a press conference. It is expected that the project implementation will contribute to the formation of the "zero tolerance to discrimination on the grounds of disability" in Armenia and will hopefully bring to the substantive debates on the relevant legislation and procedures. Unison NGO will implement this project in close cooperation with the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia.

This project is one of the five civil society projects supported by the European Union/Council of Europe regional anti-discrimination project, in Armenia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine aimed at combating discrimination, favouring inclusion of groups at risk of discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes, and raising awareness among vulnerable communities and the general public about redress to discrimination.

This activity is implemented in the framework of the regional project “Strengthening access to justice for victims of discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in the Eastern Partnership”, financed by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in their Partnership for Good Governance phase II.