Friday, November 25 2016 12:41

ArmInfo. In Armenia, gender based violence, and particularly family violence, is a serious challenge, Bradley Busetto,  the UN Resident Coordinator in Armenia  and UNDP permanent representative  stated at the opening of 16-day  campaign against gender based violence. 

 "In 2016, according to official data for the first semester, 373  cases of family violence have been reported, seven of which were  deadly," Busetto stated.  In this context he  assessed positively the  efforts of Armenia to overcome gender-based violence. Busetto  encouraged the RA Government developed Draft Law on Family Violence,  which will allow to cover the lack in the regulatory framework of  this field. 

Violence against  women and girls remains one of the most serious  human rights violation. This understanding is reflected in the new  global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Goal Five  on gender  equality has a stand-alone target to end all forms of violence  against all women by 2030.  Worldwide, almost one third of women who  have been in a relationship report that hey have experienced some  form of violence, mostly by their intimate partner. 

At the same time Busetto stated that gender-based violence could not  be tackled in isolation, and there are concentrated efforts of all  the stakeholders needed to address violence against women, and that  all the  state interlocutors, civil society and international  community are encouraged to ensure that respective mechanisms and  services are in place to support the victims of violence. 

In his turn, Dirk Lorenz, the Acting Head of the Delegation of the  European Union to Armenia, accentuated, that equal rights for men and  women is one of the basic values of European Community. According  him, the struggle against gender-based discrimination is one of the  EU priorities. "I want also state that the issue of family violence  will be among the priorities for EU in 2017 all over the world," he  mentioned. In this context Lorenz added that EU is one of the largest  donors for Armenia in respect to this issue. He also accentuated that  EU will keep on helping Armenia to solve these problems. 

To note, November 25 is the International Day of Women Protection  against women. Every year the period between November 25 and December  10 ( Human Rights Day), the 16-day struggle against  women violence  Campaign is being held.