Rights-based approach to social justice

On 11 April the Human Rights and Social Justice graduate program welcomed Ms. Anahit Simonyan to give a guest lecture on the rights-based approach to social justice.  Ms. Simonyan is a researcher, human rights practitioner and feminist activist, based in Armenia. Her areas of expertise include women’s rights, protection from violence and discrimination and advancement of socio- economic rights. Anahit holds an MA in Theory and Practice of Human Rights from the University of Essex, UK.
Throughout her work, Anahit has cooperated with numerous local and international human rights organizations and networks.
In 2018, Anahit co-founded the Human Rights Research Center (HRRC) - a non-governmental organization, based in Armenia. Currently, she is the Director of HRRC.
Anahit has authored and co-authored more than 20 researches, articles and publications on such issues as combating violence against women deprived of liberty, protection of labour rights and harmonization of domestic legislation with international labour standards, housing rights, the use of UN complaints procedure, human rights based-approaches in policy making and development of rights-based poverty reduction policies, revision of human rights guarantees under the constitution of Armenia, etc.
In her expert capacity, currently she also works as a National Gender and Human Rights Expert, American University of Armenia’s Acopian Center for the Environment.
The guest speaker started the session from the successful collaboration established between MA HRSJ program and HRRC in Armenia, presenting the scope of activities that HRRC is actively involved in. Then the lecturer successfully unpacked the concept of rights-based approach (HRBA) focusing on current social justice challenges in Armenia. By using practical examples from the past work of HRRC and social justice concerns brought by the group, with the active participation of the students Anahit identified the key aspects for research and advocacy. Further discussion touched upon the tools, methods and approaches that could be applied for collecting evidence and achieving changes on the level of policy, practices, as well as societal perceptions and narrative.
The lecture was followed by a Q&A session actively engaging the MA HRSJ Program Chair Ms. Siranush Sahakyan and the students in an active discussion.