What changes the bill on domestic violence has undergone?

The agenda of the November 16^th sitting of the RA Government included  the draft law “On Prevention of Domestic violence, Protection of Domestic Violence victims and Restoring Solidarity in the Family” and related laws package. From the name of the bill it becomes clear that the first amendment was made in the title, a message with a positive tone about “restoration of solidarity in the family”, which is obviously aimed at neutralizing the allegations of “destroying the family” sounded before by the opponents of the law … The change in the title of the draft led to other editions in the text of the bill, in particular, the term “fight against domestic violence” is no longer used. What other changes have been made to the elaborated draft, was clarified by WomenNet.am in the summary.

First, the model of urgent intervention in the draft has been changed. In addition, the types of violence have been clarified. As regards the disputable “physical violence” provision, it has been justified that the deprivation of liberty is a form of physical violence and is also envisaged by a number of other laws on domestic violence prevention including Georgia, Croatia, and Kyrgyzstan,. The draft  considers physical violence to be: “Beating and other violent actions provided by the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, deliberate infliction of harm to health, illegal deprivation of liberty, as well as intentional physical suffering”.

It has also been clarified that those who are in factual marital relations, even if not joint, will be considered as a family within the meaning of the Project. The concept of “initial identification of domestic violence” has been removed from the project. The Model of the Prevention Board has been amended to become attached to the Authorized Body.

First, note that not all proposals or objections have been adopted. For example, pursuant to Article 3 § 2, paragraph 3, i threatening of physical, sexual or economic violence is a form of psychological violence, that it was suggested that the draft also provide for the definition of “threat” in the meaning of this project, but the Ministry rejected the proposal mentioning that the term “threat” is used by the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia and should be interpreted in conformity with that Code and, moreover, concepts that are already used and practically applied in the context of other laws.

Full text in Armenian