Armenia’s track record on criminalising domestic violence

Protest in Republic Square, Yerevan. Photo: RaffiKojian (CC) commons.wikimedia.org

While the CEDAW provides general principles for upholding the rights of women, the primary international document and the main benchmarks allowing the evaluation of countries’ performance when it comes to protections against domestic violence, are set by the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. Armenia signed the Convention in 2018 and, due to ample obstacles, has so far failed in ratification.

Barriers

Armenia’s legacy regarding the protection of women’s rights dates back largely to the Soviet-times’ societal habit of secrecy. In the country’s young history, since independence, the lack of state-level attention towards gender issues has had cultural underpinnings. The different social groups maintain patriarchal and traditional values. Before the 2018 Velvet Revolution, the culture encouraged conditions strengthening women’s vulnerability, with governmental institutions’, and the leading party’s ideology, leaning towards patriarchal values. Data from a nationwide survey on domestic violence and the abuse of women in Armenia, conducted in 2007, show distorted perceptions about family relationships. For example, 61 per cent of respondents said that “a good wife always obeys her husband, even if she disagrees”.

There are barriers which continue to drive injustices and violence against women in Armenia, including a lack of institutional and support services, a lack of surveillance and screening, poor media coverage, a lack of focus on the prevention of violence, and the cultural acceptance of gender-based violence. A quote from research on domestic violence in Armenia, conducted two decades ago, remains relevant to this day: “Police take insufficient steps to address the problem of domestic violence; they generally do not make arrests nor do they routinely attempt to remove the perpetrator of the assault from the home … The Armenian government has not created a criminal justice system that provides adequate security to women who are beaten by their husbands or intimate partners.”.

Family values are a top priority in Armenia. The family is protected by the constitution as the natural and basic unit of society, the basis for the preservation and reproduction of the population, motherhood and childhood. With the highest legal protections for the family, Armenia still does not have a standalone law on domestic violence. Hence, domestic violence is not criminalised. The violence part is regulated under the criminal code, while domestic violence includes physical, psychological, social and economic types. According to data from the Investigative Committee of Armenia, a total of 131 criminal cases have been initiated in 2015, and 157 cases in 2016, based on code articles 138-142 on rape, sexual violence and engaging in sexual acts with a person under the age of sixteen. During the first half of 2019, a total of 331 criminal domestic violence cases have been investigated.

Advocates

In practice – the most concerned about the problem of domestic violence in Armenia have been civil society organisations, which is evidenced by their engagement from the provision of basic services (e.g. psychological and legal counselling, shelter and financial assistance, humanitarian aid) to education and awareness raising, and to victim representation in courts.

The Coalition to Stop Violence against Women was established in 2010, following the death of a 20-year old woman as a result of a severe beating. They target the education and formation of public opinion, in order to change the prevailing traditional views in society. Since 2010 extensive advocacy by civil society organisations began to also counter political manipulation. Attention towards the issue of domestic violence on a state level, with the establishment of the intergovernmental commission on combating gender-based violence by the prime minister, was almost invisible until a decade ago. In 2010 Armenia adopted the 2011-15 Gender Policy Strategic Programme, thus renewing the previously adopted National Action Plan on Improving the Status of Women and Enhancing Their Role in Society (2004-2010).

It is important to understand the agenda of propagandists and pseudo-nationalist political forces which have become used to abusing the issue of domestic violence as a platform for manipulation and partisanship goals. This is why the draft law on domestic violence, initiated by the civil society organisations, was rejected by the parliament in 2013. In 2017, a new draft was presented, but again encountered intensive resistance. During that process, human rights defenders encountered hate speech and online attacks. The discussion on the importance for a standalone law on domestic violence evolved within the public discourse in the scope of the definition of family – in particular, the value of family in society vs. the state’s interference in it. By placing the word violence next to the adjective “domestic” sparked pseudo-nationalist interpretations on the intention of the concepts. As a consequence, the framing of domestic violence shifted towards a narrative of domestic solidarity.

The strange part of this is that the state can interfere in family business when it comes to mediating or restoring harmony and peace – but not in cases relating to detecting violence, or preventing and protecting potential victims. Interference by the state into family life is dependent on one function: reconciliation, yes; protection, no. Pseudo-nationalist groups who support such nonsense are best explained as reactive actors. They only appear when there is a thoughtful agenda to oppose. These groups are inactive in advocacy, if visible at all. They seem like “puppets” of the patriarchy-advocate political forces, kept in their pockets for when the public discourse needs some noise. These questionable actors are trained to oppose progress. In 2017 the law was adopted with a changed framing. The wording of the law ended up being: “Preventing Violence in Family, Protecting Persons Subjected to Violence in Family and Restoring Solidarity in Family” and was adopted in December 2017.  In 2018 the prime minister established a council on the prevention of violence in family in order to coordinate activities complying with the law.

Victim blaming

A primary concern is that domestic violence in Armenia remains largely unreported. Among the many reasons is the practice of victim blaming within society, rooted in an attitude which prevents victims from speaking out. The same attitude is also present among law enforcement bodies. Civil society organisations have invested in promoting behavioural shifts, namely victim-oriented treatment through the development of specialist skills of police, health workers and court staff.

Another major problem is the state’s failure to ensure the prosecution of crimes, even in cases when violence is reported. There have been cases when victims of domestic violence have filed complaints, but the responsible bodies have failed to take adequate measures of protection, which has resulted in the victim’s death. Another issue is recognising not only direct, but also indirect victims of violence, which remains legally unaddressed. For example, indirect victims are often children, as they can be affected by the witnessing of domestic violence.

Data from research I have conducted show that, prior to the 2018 revolution, none of the state bodies, including the Human Rights Defender, seemed to have a vested interest in moving the domestic violence agenda forward.  Developments since the revolution point to the strategic involvement of the new leadership on the role of women in family and society, and it seems to have been positively received by the decision-making community.

However traditional values, along with a lack of information on human rights guarantees, still reign. Society has not yet achieved a level of consciousness to oppose the fake and easily digestible narratives. The same is true about intentions to ratify the Istanbul Convention. Armenia’s ratification process-experience has been episodic with manipulation and drama to spark public emotion. Armenia seems to be registering a tendency of signing international documents, but boosting problems locally, when it comes to ratification. The former government was an imitation of subscription to international standards. The new one seems to suggest a will to reverse this practice, but it remains to be seen how implementation is followed on the cultural, institutional and policy levels. Starting from March this year, as a result of COVID-19, the number of phone calls to domestic violence hotlines has increased when compared to February.

Armenia has a long history and a proud culture of elevated thinking and public education prioritising universal values, which came to be tainted by Soviet mass violations of human rights. If concerns over the protection of every individual prevail by manipulated beliefs, the country will hardly move far away from its Soviet past. In declarations throughout the nation, Armenian mothers, wives, grandmothers and daughters receive the highest of praise and respect. However none of it is needed or relevant if political leaders are unable to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence – the primary international document offering protection from domestic violence and measures to evaluate state’s performance in upholding the rights of women. 

Valentina Gevorgyan is a public policy research fellowship coordinator at the Open Society Foundations-Armenia and a doctoral researcher in political science at the Department of Social Sciences with the University of Fribourg.

Armenia, domestic violence, social issues