The bill on domestic violence was officially published

Officially, the RA Ministry of Justice has published the bills on the “Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence and the Protection of persons subjected to Domestic Violence” and related laws. It should be noted that the projects have been published on September 20 and content-related suggestions or objections can be presented  until October 10^th. They will be included in the summary – those written online writing during 2 working days, those sent by e:mail –  within 10 working days. On the same page, it is also intended online voting for and against the bill.

It is clear from the project’s name that the main goal of the law is to prevent domestic violence and to protect victims of violence. As regards the penalties for violators, these issues are mainly regulated by the RA Criminal Code, although the draft also provides certain penalties.

What Is Domestic Violence?

The law provides for domestic violence. “Domestic violence is a physical, sexual, psychological, or economic act of violence between family members or formerly family members, whether or not the person who acts of violence and those who have been abused live or live together.” Accordingly, the types of domestic violence are mentioned.

1) physical violence – beating or intentionally causing physical pain or physical suffering, or by any means causing intentional damage to health as well as illegal deprivation of liberty;

(2) sexual violence – crimes against sexual immunity and sexual freedom provided for by the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia;

3) psychological violence: intentional mental illness, including the threat of physical, sexual or economic violence, persecution, systematic humiliation of dignity, and extreme social isolation.

4) economic violence – intentionally deprived of the place of residence, food or other necessary means for which the person has the right to dispose,  possess or use the law as well as to prohibit the unlawful restriction of the right to work or to obtain material funds from other sources prescribed by law.

The necessity of the law

The bill points out that in recent years, the prevalence of domestic violence and its grave consequences have become increasingly alarming. Particularly, according to the RA Investigative Committee, killings in the context of domestic violence in 2015 constitute 17% of the murders recorded in the republic. According to the data of non-governmental organizations dealing with domestic violence, 30 women were killed in 2010-2015 as a result of domestic violence. According to a survey conducted by the OSCE-supported Proactive Society NGO, 59.6% of respondents were subjected to domestic violence during their lifetime. At the same time, the authors of the bill underline that domestic violence is a high level of latency, which means that the real picture of domestic violence is worse.

Full text in Armenian