Today U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Rafik Mansour opened the “Role of Women in Justice” conference in Yerevan. The conference was organized by the Embassy’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Office with the goal of bringing together Armenian judges, lawyers, investigators, and law enforcement personnel to discuss cultural obstacles in the justice system and how to overcome them.
At the conference, U.S. legal and law enforcement experts will share their own experiences overcoming challenges in the U.S. justice system. Participants will work together to devise new strategies to increase the number of women in leadership positions in the Armenian justice sector and affect change on key issues.
“I am pleased to see that there are some men in the room in addition to the women, because we all have a role to play in the quest for equal representation,” Chargé Mansour said. “I think we can all agree that the more women who fill the ranks of Armenia’s justice system, the more the system will accurately reflect Armenian society. This means the Armenian people will feel more connected to that justice system, and will have more confidence in it.”
The conference will continue through Friday and features four visiting U.S. subject matter experts. Cynthia C. Shain is the Director of the Southern Police Institute at the University of Louisville in the State of Kentucky; Kristen Bitetto is an Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York; Amy Campanelli is the Public Defender of Cook County in the State of Illinois, and Judge Bernadette D’Souza serves on the Orleans Parish Civil District Court in the State of Louisiana.
