Women’s Support Center – Passage of Armenia’s New Domestic Violence Law

Summer-Fall 2018 Newsletter 

Welcome to the Women’s Support Center’s e-newsletter designed to keep you informed of current activities. Below WSC highlights the work carried out in the past few months to ensure the safety of women and children, victims of domestic violence, and advocate for change. Engage with WSC by following Facebook, website, and contacting WSC. Women’s Support Center would love to hear from you!

NEW DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LAW

Since the passage of the new Domestic Violence(DV) law in Armenia, we have been working intensively on developing mechanisms for Police and Social Workers to facilitate the law’s monitoring and implementation. This is an ongoing process to improve services for DV victims and to ensure the prevention of DV cases. Tragically, during the first 6 months since the law was passed, and since police started to record DV cases, hundreds of cases of domestic violence have been reported. These include 9 DV related deaths, which is an extremely high figure within this timeframe and context.

 

WSC lawyer, Nona Galstyan (middle) working with Ministry of Social Affairs on DV law mechanisms

INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS

The new DV law and the recent democratic changes that have taken place in Armenia have increased interest on behalf of international organizations. June was a particularly busy month. We met with gender experts from UNICEF, the Open Society Foundation, the Council of Europe, Romania, and the US Embassy.  The Armenian Bar Association Detective Vahe Abramyan of the Glendale Police Department, and Judge Armenui Amy Ashvanian from Los Angeles visited  and exchaned information with our staff.   A very productive and interesting exchange took place that lead to a gained awareness on California state practices for DV cases.

Detective Vahe Abramyan of the Glendale Police Department and Judge Armenui Amy Ashvanian

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY VISIT

Interns of the Armenian Assembly and Director Arpi Vartanian visited our center to get better acquainted with the WSC’s work, as well as with women’s rights and gender equality issues in Armenia. A lively discussion ensued.

Armenian Assembly Interns Orientation at WSC

TRAINING

We continued training Police and Social Workers.  Additionally, World Vision selected the WSC to train 442 doctors, educators, and social workers in 13 regions in Armenia. This offers us further exposure to the regions, and allows us to creating valuable contacts and foster collaborations.