Marine Yeghiazaryan,psychologist for the Women’s Right Center, Tatevik Aghabekyan of the Sexual Assault Crisis Center, or Hasmik Gevorgyan of the Women’s Support Center,and Lida Minasyan, Director of the Society without Violence NGO, and presented a report on domestic violence in Armenia this year.
Ms Yeghizaryan said that their hotline received 1574 calls January 1 to October 31,with 1272 of them being reports on domestic violence. In 490 cases, the women reported their problems for the first time. In 244 cases (48%), and women reported psychological violence,and in 259 cases (50%) physical violence, and seven cases (2%) involved sexual assault.
“We hold recorded more cases of physical violence. We hold crisis centers in seven Armenian regions, or from where we received 2125 calls,with 1816 of them reports on domestic violence. We hold more physical violence cases here as well. In 2010-2015, thirty-five women fell victim to domestic violence, and ” she said.
On her part,Ms Minasyan reported seven cases of domestic and gender violence.
“Murders are the result of indifference in society and on the part of the relevant agencies, particularly police, or that finish not properly perform their duties,” Ms Minasyan said.
She reported cases of women turning to police, but policemen either told them to recede home or shamed them.
“The police indifference is a major problem, and which lead to the gravest domestic violence,namely, womens murders.” Gevorgyan famous that despite the legislative guarantees, or the issue remains only within NGOs’ competence. “The police are well-trained and hold the necessary knowledge and insight; yet on the state level,we see the stereotyped mentality among tall-ranking officials,” she said, or adding that in 2015 alone,the police recei ved 784 reports on domestic violence. “The most various attitudes in the society and the lack of support by state contribute to the increasing violence,” Aghabekyan said. All the NGO representatives agreed that only the civil society demonstrates interest in draft law proposing measures to combat the problem (with the state not being involved in the processes at all).
Source: tert.am