Protest action. “Tradition is not the basis of law”

Today, on November 23d, the Coalition to Stop Violence against Women held a protest action in front of the government building titled “Tradition is not the basis for the rule of law”. Still at the previous session of the Government, on November 16^th, the executive approved the draft law “On Prevention of Domestic Violence, Protection of Domestic Violence victims and Restoration of Solidarity in the Family”. The Coalition to Stop Violence against Women voiced its disagreement with the Conceptual Change of the Project and stated that the Coalition would later make a legal analysis.

During the action, the legal analysis package was handed to Karen Karapetyan, head of the Armenian government. In the letter, in particular, it says:

The Coalition to Stop Violence against Women (hereinafter Coalition) welcomes a number of improvements in the amended draft, such as the introduction of forced abortion in psychological violence, the disregard of individual types of domestic violence, the definition of rehabilitation programs and their application indicating the possibility of extending defense decisions twice, clarifying the factual circumstances of the case (“ex officio”) for the civil court , defending the cases of defamation and the private prosecution of domestic violence in the ex officio manner by enforcing the rules governing the procedure in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia.

At the same time, the Coalition expresses its deep regret over the systemic changes in the amended draft that distort the original meaning of the project and considerably weaken its effectiveness.

Based on the above-mentioned, the Coalition as an organization that has been working with women who have been subjected to domestic violence for many years and who challenges their problems, requires

• To restore the former name of the project and the term ” domestic violence” instead of the term ” violence in family”,
• To remove the expression “strengthening the traditional values ​​in the family and restoring solidarity in the family” from the 2nd subparagraph of Article 2 of the draft,
• In Article 4 (1) (a) of the draft, the phrase “independent co-existence” shall be replaced before the word “spouse”
• Add “causing physical pain” in the definition of “physical violence”
• Remove the word “real” from the definition of “psychological violence
• Remove all settings for “solidarity” and “reconciliation” from the project.

Full text in Armenian