DOMESTIC VIOLENCE TAKING HIGH TOLL IN ARMENIA
Tuesday, February 5, 2013 – 18:56
YEREVAN, Feb 05 (IPS) – Increasingly the issue of domestic violence
in Armenia is a topic for public discussion. Yet greater attention
to the issue isn’t yet translating into an expansion of programmes
to alleviate suffering and address policy shortcomings.
In 2012, Armenia set a grim record for domestic violence when six
women, ranging in age from 21 to 50 years old, died over the course
of six months in incidents involving their husbands or fathers-in-law.
Collectively, the six dead women left behind 12 children.
No official registry of domestic-violence attacks exists in Armenia.
But a 2008 survey of 1,000 Armenian women by Amnesty International
found that more than three out of 10 had suffered from physical abuse,
and 66 percent from psychological abuse.
The outcry over the recent deaths prompted activists to believe
that the government would start making state funds available for the
protection and treatment of victims of domestic violence. But on Jan.
21, the government blocked passage of what would have been the
country’s first domestic-violence law, saying that revisions should
be made to existing legislation, or to the bill itself.
In the absence of government funding, non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) are struggling to meet needs.
“There are many cases, and only NGO efforts do not suffice,”
commented Susanna Vardanian, director of the Women’s Rights Center,
a Yerevan-based NGO, which is a backer of the stalled draft law.
At present, three private domestic-violence shelters (two in Yerevan
and one in the nearby region of Armavir), along with several NGO-run
hotlines are all that exist for female domestic violence victims. Over
the past two years, the Women’s Rights Centre, which runs two hotlines,
four regional crisis centres and one shelter, has received some 2,557
calls from women seeking help, according to Vardanian.
At a facility run by the charitable foundation Lighthouse in the
village of Ptghunts, the 55 women residents are mostly unemployed,
and either pregnant or raising children. The shelter provides basic
job training, as well as psychological counselling.
For decades, domestic violence was a topic that not only battered
women, but also officials and law-enforcement authorities shied away
from acknowledging or discussing. But now, that has begun to change,
with people starting to be held accountable for abusive actions.
For example, Haykanush Mikayelian received a 10-month sentence in
2012 for her role in the abuse of her 23-year-old daughter-in-law,
Mariam Gevorgian, over a prolonged period starting in 2009. According
to testimony at the trial, Mikayelian burned Gevorgian’s body with an
iron and a cigarette lighter, beat her regularly and kept her locked
indoors under key.
Although police officers are arguably now more aware of the
domestic-violence problem than several years ago, they are often left
flummoxed by the lack of state-run shelters and legal mechanisms to
prevent ongoing abuse of a woman by a husband or relative.
“As soon as it comes to taking actual steps, we seem to be faced
with the same resistance,” remarked Lara Aharomian, director of the
Women’s Resource Centre, another Yerevan-based NGO active in addressing
domestic violence.
The draft domestic-violence law that the government rejected earlier
in January would have tried to strengthen official measures to protect
victims by introducing restraining orders and expanding the number
of shelters, among other measures.
Activists believe that the six fatal domestic-violence cases in 2012
might have been prevented if Armenia had had a law outlining responses
to the abuse, and, correspondingly, providing state assistance for
shelters.
“(T)he law proposes the creation of a number of facilities, [and
the] training of police, which are preventive measures,” said Anna
Nikoghosian, a project manager for the non-governmental organisation
A Society Without Violence. If shelters had existed near the homes of
the six murdered women, all of whom lived outside of Yerevan, “some .
. . might be alive today.”
“There are many badly in need of support, but it is impossible to
house all of them in only three shelters,” agreed Lighthouse Director
Naira Muradian.
Lala Ghazarian, head of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare’s
Department for Family, Women and Childcare Issues, stressed that
the domestic-violence bill isn’t gone for good. “It just needs some
changes” to bring it into line with existing criminal law, she said.
“We are all well aware that we need a law, shelter, trained policemen,
functional tools, but it implies extensive work to change legislation,
and it will be done.”
Some government members have said that parliament, now controlled
by the Republican Party of Armenia, could pass a domestic-violence
law by 2014 or 2015, once ongoing amendments to the criminal code
are complete.
Meanwhile, as the topic’s stigma fades away, many ordinary Armenians
affirm openly that they are eager to find solutions. In the village
of Burastan, 30 kilometers outside of Yerevan, women in 2006 told
EurasiaNet.org that questions about domestic violence “destroy
traditional Armenian families”. Seven years later, they admitted that
abuse is an issue that “has to be addressed”.
“Our children have been growing up in an atmosphere of beatings and
fights,” commented 67-year-old Karine Galstian, a mother of four.
“Only now we realise how wrong it is to keep silent, because we
should at least teach our daughters that the husband has to respect
his wife, should not beat her, should not humiliate her in front of
the children.”
In the absence of further government measures against domestic
violence, such realisations could make a critical difference.
Editor’s note: Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for ArmeniaNow.com
in Yerevan.
This story was originally published by EurasiaNet.org.
http://www.iede.co.uk/news/2013_848/domestic-violence-taking-high-toll-armenia