Candle lighting by Armenia’s Coalition to Stop Violence against Women on 1 October 2017. The posters feature victims of domestic violence. Photo courtesy of Zaruhi Hovhannisyan. All rights reserved.
This October, the Armenian government redeveloped its draft law on preventing domestic violence and opened it for public discussion. This started heated debates between state representatives and several groups who oppose the law. Women’s organisations and domestic violence survivors have been left on the periphery of a male-dominated vicious circle, and the draft law has been artificially turned from a preventive and protective tool into a mechanism for “family reconciliation” between abusers and survivors.
Real legislation could mean real change
Domestic violence remains a prevalent problem for Armenian society. Despite the latent character of the issue and women’s reluctance to seek refuge from abusive relationships, as of October 2017, there were 602 cases of domestic violence officially registered by the Armenian police this year. Women’s rights NGOs received around 5,000 hotline calls.
