“We have a lot of women who need to be reminded that they are rightful”

The annual report of the RA Human Rights Defender is being discussed in the National Assembly for the second day. It is noteworthy that the idea voiced by Arman Tatoyan during his speech in the National Assembly that women are independent and rightful raised a wave of various comments among the deputies.

The topic was opened by Vagharshak Hakobyan, a member of the “My Step” faction, who accused Arman Tatoyan of referring to women’s rights in only two lines in his report, which, in his opinion, was unacceptable. “The idea mentioned in the Ombudsman’s report that a woman is an independent, rightful and dignified person is, to put it mildly, inappropriate. If you read the report in this form in the 1920s and 1930s, this would be understandable in the parliament, but in the 21st century, after the revolution, it is inadmissible to speak about women in only two lines in the report of the Human Rights Defender. I think the Human Rights Defender could have reduced his opinion on other issues, but women’s rights should have been discussed more comprehensively, “said MP Hakobyan, who had never been a supporter of women’s rights. From his further speech, it became clear that he sees great achievements in this field, except for “using incomprehensible quotas” and targeting women representatives of the government on social networks, he sees no other problems.

Arman Tatoyan reacted quite harshly to the deputy’s speech, considering his arrogant tone and threats in speech unacceptable, and, among other issues, expressed regret that he had missed an entire section of the report on women’s rights (several dozen pages). There is also a separate reference to women’s issues in the Armed Forces. It should also be noted that women’s rights are also addressed in other chapters of the document, including health care, labor rights, and so on. You can get acquainted with the report here.

As for the comprehensive coverage of women’s rights, we suggest watching the video made by the Human Rights Defender’s Office once again.

Naira Zohrabyan, Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs, referring to the issue, noted that she did not understand the accusations against the Ombudsman that in the 21st century, especially after the revolution, there is no need to remind women that they are right.

“I think the question is whether there are women in Armenia who do not yet know that they are rightful, has one answer, of course there are. Unfortunately, there are such women, and if they were not, we would not have passed the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence, because many women, yes, do not know their rights, “Naira Zohrabyan said in her speech.

After the adoption of the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence, the MP continued, she tried to get information from the RA Police on how much the number of women who had a real courage to apply to the law enforcement system has increased. According to the answer, the growth is insignificant, while the legislators, she said, expected more, because violence, “physical,” psychological, “economic”, unfortunately, exists in many of our families. And this is an issue that needs to be addressed openly, because if there is no such open dialogue, we will continue to be indebted to those issues and we will continue to have false statistics.

WomenNet.am reminds that the statistics show that domestic violence has a disproportionate effect, especially on women. Thus, according to the RA Police, during 2019, 485 cases of domestic violence were investigated, of which 2 by the partner, 329 by the husband against the wife, and 10 by the wife against the husband. During 2019, which is the reporting period of the report, 635 criminal cases on domestic violence were in the proceedings of the RA Investigative Committee, 8 of which were in the proceedings of the General Military Investigation Department of the Committee. Out of 635 criminal cases, 14 were initiated under Article 104 of the RA Criminal Code (murder), 2 – under Article 109 of the RA Criminal Code (causing death by negligence).