Draft Law of the Republic of Armenia "On domestic violence" discussed

A working meeting devoted to the prevention of domestic violence was held today at the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia. Among the participants of the discussion were Head of the Department of Legislation of the Staff of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Bagrat Ghazinyan, Adviser of the Equality Division of the Council of Europe Tikli Oikarinen, as well as representatives of the Office of the Human Rights Defender and other representatives of the Ministry of Justice.

The purpose of the meeting was to consider the international experience and develop legal and effective mechanisms for preventing and combating domestic violence in Armenia.

Greeting the guests, Head of the Department of Legislation of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Bagrat Ghazinyan expressed his gratitude for all the efforts of the Council of Europe aimed at reducing the cases of domestic violence in Armenia and emphasised that the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia is ready to co-operate and — within the scope of a number of programmes of the Council of Europe — fully implement protection to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence. "Currently, the Ministry of Justice is also developing the draft Law of the Republic of Armenia "On preventing and combating domestic violence", the goal of which is to regulate the field in a comprehensive manner. In this regard, the study of the best international experience and the adoption of legal solutions will contribute to the establishment of legal and effective mechanisms in the field under consideration," Bagrat Ghazinyan said.

Adviser of the Equality Division of the Council of Europe Tikli Oikarinen expressed willingness for ongoing co-operation and exchange of experience.

During the discussion, the employees of the Ministry asked the expert about the legal regulations considered as the best experience in that field and in relation to a number of current issues, such as the need for including a separate corpus delicti criminalising domestic violence in the Criminal Code or in separate existing corpus delicti envisaging that, the appropriateness of creating a special fund, the financing for which will be provided through the payment of fines by persons having committed violence; this will serve for the solution to the social problems of victims in the future.

An agreement was reached on engaging non-governmental organisations in the upcoming meetings as well.