A discussion of the draft law “On Prevention of Domestic Violence and Protection of Victims” was held, which was attended by a number of non-governmental organizations.
Before proceeding to the discussion, Justice Minister Davit Harutyunyan told reporters that this is a phenomenon common in the world, it is not in any way connected with ethnicity or education level. And, as the Minister said, civilized mankind all over the world has been fighting against this phenomenon for 30 years now: “If earlier this was supposed to be a simple element of violence, many studies have shown that this is a separate phenomenon, and the toolkit must be different. During these years many international legal instruments have been created-conventions-which Armenia also has joined. I especially want to emphasize the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, some points of which have set a ground to create the tools we are talking about”.
In response to the remarks of Aravot.am, that the opponents of the project argue that this law is destroying Armenian families, that the law envisages taking the children away from their families, this is a law that the West has imposed on us, the Minister said, “First of all, it is a very ridiculous formulation that children will be taken from families by this law. This law is also about children protection. If we look at the statistics of how many cases there are, even sexual abuse done by family members, we need to understand that these children also need protection”.
According to the Minister, this law is not about deprivation of parental rights, because it has always been in the law and, if necessary, has also been applied: “The main purpose of the law is to protect families”.
According to Harutyunyan, the Republic of Armenia has voluntarily signed international conventions and there was no compulsion by international structures: “We aim at adopting this law, because the figures show that there is such a problem in our society”.
Nelly BABAYAN
