“What you should do – go and live with him, he is your husband, never mind”

With the initiative of the Standing Committee on European Integration of the Armenian National Assembly, some of the participants of the parliamentary hearings yesterday appeared to be frustrated that women should be punished in the family with beating and humiliation, as the priority is to keep the family. They do not spare efforts to advance this thesis, they only state that violence is an integral part of Armenian family values. It should be noted that the parliamentary hearings were organized on the draft version of the draft law “On Prevention of Domestic Violence and Protection of Victims of Domestic Violence”.

Do not seek conspiracies in this bill”…

In their questions and speeches, the opponents of the law generally blamed one general charge, alleging that this law is aimed at undermining the Armenian family and the result of the conspiracies of some dark forces. Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Vigen Kocharyan, who was the main speaker and commented on the law, responded to similar accusations shortly but clearly, assuring that the bill was aimed at protecting the Armenian family. “The goal of the project is to protect the Armenian family from “evil – violence”, – he said.

What concerns the accusation of conspiracy, they are, in his words, ungrounded. “There are some conspiracies in this law, but conspiracies occur in the dark corners, not in the public debate, and especially when the law has been published for a long time, thousands of people have come to know it and have asked questions, He noted that he received more than 100 proposals, most of which speak of the public demand of this law.

Committee Chair Naira Zohrabyan urged the participants not to hold these hearings as clashes as the previous public debate, as everyone has the right to express their opinion.

Full text in Armenian