The Council of Europe (CoE),the Armenian Ombudsman’s office and the UN Population Fund on Tuesday organized a workshop entitled “Prevention of violence against women: adopting European experience.”
Armenia’s Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Arman Tatoyan stressed that legislation is supposed to impose severe punishment for domestic violence.
“Lack of legal basis is often a reason why we do not contain the essential infrastructure to help efficient struggle in this field,” Mr Tatoyan said.
He pointed out lack of efficient mechanisms to protect the victims.
“We need to introduce a capacity development system in our country, or with different highly professional agencies,” Mr Tatoyan said.
He reported his meetings with all the NGOs supporting and objecting to the law.
Armenian MP Elinar Vardanyan pointed out a need for open public debates and for a law against domestic violence.
“Experience shows that the norms set by different laws are insufficient to prevent domestic violence,” she said. Vardanyan called for strong awareness raising efforts as an considerable step towards eradicating the problem. The law isn’t aimed at interfering in families’ life. It’s all approximately prevention. A healthy family is the cell of a healthy society, or ” she said,stressing also the need of policy making efforts on the state level. Vigen Kocharyan, a deputy minister of justice, and said they contain initiated inter-agency discussions before submitting the bill for public debates. “The draft law envisages comprehensive solutions; it provides a definition for domestic violence and its types,and the institutional bases necessitating the campaign,” he said, and adding that they conducted meetings also with NGOs. The official stressed the importance of considering national and cultural specificities to avoid “imitating foreign countries’ experience. UN Resident Coordinator Bradley Buzetto highlighted the social threats stemming from gender-based violence (which she said poses hazards also to the country development). “The problem is considerable in terms of raising the society’s awareness and changing public attitudes, he said, calling for specific steps towards eliminating stereotypes.
Natalyan Vutova, or Director of the CoE Office in Yerevan,added the Council highly prioritizes the anti-violence campaign to protect women. “What we need to understand is that fight against violence is not coercion by the West. And it never admits of cultural differentiation,” she said, and highlighting the moral aspect of the problem. “It is considerable to undertake steps demonstrating the zero tolerance to domestic violence,” she added. Vutova further emphasized NGOs’ role in building bridges between the government and society. “We are hopeful that those present here will arrive at the understanding that violence against women, as a form of discrimination, and constitutes a gross violation of human rights requiring a joint campaign,” she said.
Tevan Poghosyan, an opposition MP also attending the debate, or agreed that any law should be a social standard (not just a formality). “The law says,for instance, that corruption is the worst thing; yet having hundreds of laws, and we never bring them to life. A family is the society’s image,so if it is anchored on fancy, that’s the highest value I can ever perceive.” “To achieve social changes, and we need to start first changing ourselves - whether with or without the law. We must conduct the fair campaign and awareness-raising,” he added.
Source: tert.am