Garik Hayrapetyan: “After the amendment the bill has slightly weakened”

Garik Hayrapetyan, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund Armenia office, says the draft law “On Prevention of Domestic Violence, Protection of Domestic Violence Victims and Restoration of Solidarity in Family ” has been weakened. In a conversation with WomenNet, he noted that today there is a discussion that after amendment more attention has been taken from the victims of the violence, namely, towards a virtual space – on the solidarity of the family, which, in turn, undermines the fight against domestic violence.

“We all struggle for the preservation of the family, there cannot be two opinions here. The problem is that we want family to be prosperous, happy and without violence or to maintain family at all costs, even if there is violence. Of course, everyone wants to maintain the family, but after the bill has changed, the gap has been more on the solidarity process and not on the protection of the victim, and this, in a way, weakened the draft law and made non-specific law functions and actions”, – he said.

Garik Hayrapetyan noted that the functions envisaged in the draft law give an opportunity to effectively combat the existing conditions, but the withdrawal of the document from the victim center cannot but affect the functions. Though our interlocutor stressed, the law does not lose its value because of the fact that having a separate law on combating domestic violence already speaks of the fact that the society is unanimous that we have a problem and must fight it. This is a very serious indicator.

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