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.