Vigen Kocharyan: Law on "Prevention of family violence and protection  of persons subjected to family violence" aims at preserving Armenian  families

ArmInfo.On October 17, the National Assembly of Armenia held hearings on the draft law "On preventing family violence and protection of persons subjected to  family violence" with the participation of representatives of authorized structures, public organizations and legislators. 

Introducing the bill, Deputy Minister of Justice Vigen Kocharyan tried to protect the document from attacks by opponents who argue  that it is aimed at loosening the foundations of the Armenian family  and demoralizing the society. "There is a point of view that in  society there is no need for such a law, but this is a delusion.

To understand how this law can be claimed only by those who  constantly face victims of domestic violence and who have statistics  at their fingertips, in particular, legal structures, employees of  the ombudsman's office. This law does not in any way destroy the  traditions of the Armenian family, on the contrary, it is called upon  to strengthen and protect the Armenian family from destruction, "the  deputy minister assured, citing some statistical data as evidence of  his words, for example, 17% of murders in Armenia occur precisely  because of family violence, more than 40% of the corruption of minors  is also the result of family violence. "The deputy minister noted  that more than 120 countries, including European ones, have adopted a  similar law, such law has already been adopted in Georgia,  Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Ukraine.  However, the deputy minister's  words did not dispel the doubts of his opponents. Against the  document, the former Minister of Social Welfare, now a deputy from  the Tsarukyan bloc Gevorg Poghosyan, made a speech. "All those who  oppose this law are automatically ranked as supporters of family  violence, but it's not so.I do not quite understand who will  determine the degree of psychological violence.If a parent scolds a  child, he can declare that this is psychological violence, then the  policeman, interfering in the way of this family, will take away the  child from her, "Petrosyan, displeased with his heart, declared. He  also noted that he does not quite understand what is meant by the  phrase "economic violence", because if a parent does not buy ice  cream for a child, it will also be considered "economic violence".  "And if the child decides to buy drugs and the parent does not allow  it, it can also be qualified as violence." Yes, even punishment for  educational purposes in the form of a slap in the face of the  adoption of the law can be considered as violence against the child,  "the MP did not calm. Kocharyan once again tried to dispel these  doubts, assuring that the slap in the face will not be qualified as  violence. "Psychological violence will be determined by psychological  experts, as well as beatings by other experts, and comments or  parting words to the child will not be considered as violence."  Psychological violence is, for example, the constant intimidation of  a woman or a child if she all the time they live in fear, which is  unacceptable, "Kocharyan stressed. As for "economic violence", the  matter, as the deputy minister noted, is not at all frozen. "Those  are cases when quite wealthy families deprive their wives or children  of a roof over their heads, their livelihoods." Anyone who opposes  this law does everything to destroy the Armenian traditional  families," Kocharyan concluded.

It is noteworthy that the representative of the Armenian Apostolic  Church, Nerses Achaparyan, supported the adoption of such a bill,  despite the fact that the opponents of the document argue that it  contradicts not only the Armenian foundations but also Christian  values. Representatives of public organizations criticizing the bill  argued that the document is the product of a "decaying West", with  the aim of driving the "true" Armenian women out of the way. Other  opponents of the document went so far as to claim that he was being  pushed by the "forces of evil and darkness" and suggested sending the  bill first to the AAC court, and then to the parliament. Meanwhile,  the head of the department for the protection of the rights of minors  and the fight against family violence of the Main Directorate for  Criminal Investigation, Colonel Nelly Duryan, presented statistics on  cases of family violence, according to which for the past 9 months of  2017 in Armenia, 602 cases of domestic violence were registered, 142  criminal cases. As noted by Duryan, in almost every family there is  at least one child who may not have been subjected to family  violence, but was accurately subjected to psychological abuse. "And  if our society wants that there are no violence in our families, then  we need an appropriate law," she said, adding that the document needs  improvements, as some of its items are not entirely clear. "But to  say that we do not need a similar law is conceptually wrong," she  noted. Nelly Duryan also stated that for 20 years of her work with  families where such cases occur, she realized that they needed help.  "This project is primarily designed to help such families," concluded  the head of the department for juvenile affairs.