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NATIONAL TRAGEDY: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE NEEDS STATE ATTENTION
HUMAN RIGHTS | 05.12.12 | 15:51
By GAYANE ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
The scandalous case of Mariam Gevorgyan, who was tortured by her
husband and mother-in-law, reached the court only after civil
society's protests and demands, and finally got resolved last week
opening a new page in the often-closed history of domestic violence in
Armenia.
Vayots Dzor province's general jurisdiction court sentenced Haykanush
Mikaelyan, who repeatedly tortured her daughter-in-law for almost a
year, to four years of imprisonment, but since her case falls under
the amnesty related to the declaration of independence of Armenia, the
sentence got reduced.
Enlarge Photo
So the mother-in-law, who burnt her daughter-in-law with an iron and a
cigarette lighter, pierced different parts of her body with a fork and
beat her regularly, will most likely spend only a year or less in a
penitentiary.
Gevorgyan, 23, believes the punishment is too mild.
"They have disgraced my entire life, and only one year? At night I
jump awake and remember that hell, for half a year I was forced to
sleep standing, they wouldn't let me lie down in bed, so that even now
at times I can't believe I am in bed... You know, when I recall it all,
I don't even know how I have survived," Gevorgyan told ArmeniaNow,
reflecting with horror on the ten months of "marriage in hell" she
spent in Saint Petersburg, away from her family.
Gevorgyan's husband, 28-year-old David Ziroyan and Haykanush
Mikaelyan's sisters attended the trial and threatened that Mariam
would have to pay for the slander.
"It's all a lie. Those traces were from dermatological problems. Here,
we have all the facts, we will prove everything," said Ziroyan.
The husband, too, is convicted of "deliberate moderate damage to
somebody's health", but as the maximum punishment is three years of
imprisonment, he was pardoned during amnesty, so he will not bear any
legal responsibility for his crime.
Surveys show that every third woman in Armenia is subjected to
domestic violence, however, this, as Laurence Broers, expert at
Amnesty International, says is "the visible tip of the iceberg".
The pan-republican survey by the UN Population Fund in 2010 revealed
that women are still silent, despite the fact that domestic violence
was the case with 80 percent of interviewees, however only 15 percent
agreed to voice it.
The mother-in-law's trial started a new stage in the fight against
domestic violence in Armenia.
Yet in 2006, surveys by Sociometer sociological center showed that in
25 percent of cases of domestic violence it is implemented or
instigated by mothers-in-law, nonetheless not a single case had been
filed against them before.
The mother-in-law's role was big in the 2010 case, too, when
20-year-old Zaruhi Petrosyan was beaten to death, but only the
husband, Yunis Sarkisov, got a 10 year sentence. This case would
likely have been covered up, too, if not for public pressure and
protests.
Petrosyan's murder became a turning point in the perception of the
issue of domestic violence in Armenia. If before law-makers and
government members often denied the existence of such and claimed that
"NGOs are exaggerating to get grants", the death of the young woman,
mother of an 18 months old child, proved that the issue does exist and
needs measures.
While a 16-day campaign is held in Yerevan against gender
discrimination and violence (it launched on November 25 -
International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women, and will
last till December 10, International Day of Human Rights), another
case of a husband killing his wife was completed in Vayots Dzor
province.
Resident of Aghavnadzor village Yurik Babayan, who killed his wife
Anahit Babayan, got sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. Twenty seven
years of marriage for the mother of three sons ended with a cruel
death. According to testimony, the husband first physically abused
her, then dragged her to the courtyard of the house, as he testified
"not to mar up the house", and beat her to death with pieces of
concrete and a bludgeon.
Human and women's rights activists have a hope that these tragic cases
will sober officials and make them finally adopt laws against domestic
violence.
"These are regrettable facts, which might have been possible to
prevent, if there was a law on domestic violence obliging the state to
create a developed network of shelters for women who have found
themselves in such predicaments. They would be escorted to a shelter
by special-trained police officers," says director of Women's Resource
Centre Lara Aharonyan.
The passing of the law on domestic violence has been postponed since
2007, promises are voiced almost annually, but "the ice is not
moving".
"I believe by December 10 the complete legislative package will be
submitted to the government, and we will solve the issues by law in
the nearest future having the most effective levers of preventing
tragic consequences of domestic violence," Lala Ghazaryan, head of the
department for Family, Women and Child Affairs at the ministry of
labour and social affairs, told ArmeniaNow.
HUMAN RIGHTS | 05.12.12 | 15:51
By GAYANE ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
The scandalous case of Mariam Gevorgyan, who was tortured by her
husband and mother-in-law, reached the court only after civil
society's protests and demands, and finally got resolved last week
opening a new page in the often-closed history of domestic violence in
Armenia.
Vayots Dzor province's general jurisdiction court sentenced Haykanush
Mikaelyan, who repeatedly tortured her daughter-in-law for almost a
year, to four years of imprisonment, but since her case falls under
the amnesty related to the declaration of independence of Armenia, the
sentence got reduced.
Enlarge Photo
So the mother-in-law, who burnt her daughter-in-law with an iron and a
cigarette lighter, pierced different parts of her body with a fork and
beat her regularly, will most likely spend only a year or less in a
penitentiary.
Gevorgyan, 23, believes the punishment is too mild.
"They have disgraced my entire life, and only one year? At night I
jump awake and remember that hell, for half a year I was forced to
sleep standing, they wouldn't let me lie down in bed, so that even now
at times I can't believe I am in bed... You know, when I recall it all,
I don't even know how I have survived," Gevorgyan told ArmeniaNow,
reflecting with horror on the ten months of "marriage in hell" she
spent in Saint Petersburg, away from her family.
Gevorgyan's husband, 28-year-old David Ziroyan and Haykanush
Mikaelyan's sisters attended the trial and threatened that Mariam
would have to pay for the slander.
"It's all a lie. Those traces were from dermatological problems. Here,
we have all the facts, we will prove everything," said Ziroyan.
The husband, too, is convicted of "deliberate moderate damage to
somebody's health", but as the maximum punishment is three years of
imprisonment, he was pardoned during amnesty, so he will not bear any
legal responsibility for his crime.
Surveys show that every third woman in Armenia is subjected to
domestic violence, however, this, as Laurence Broers, expert at
Amnesty International, says is "the visible tip of the iceberg".
The pan-republican survey by the UN Population Fund in 2010 revealed
that women are still silent, despite the fact that domestic violence
was the case with 80 percent of interviewees, however only 15 percent
agreed to voice it.
The mother-in-law's trial started a new stage in the fight against
domestic violence in Armenia.
Yet in 2006, surveys by Sociometer sociological center showed that in
25 percent of cases of domestic violence it is implemented or
instigated by mothers-in-law, nonetheless not a single case had been
filed against them before.
The mother-in-law's role was big in the 2010 case, too, when
20-year-old Zaruhi Petrosyan was beaten to death, but only the
husband, Yunis Sarkisov, got a 10 year sentence. This case would
likely have been covered up, too, if not for public pressure and
protests.
Petrosyan's murder became a turning point in the perception of the
issue of domestic violence in Armenia. If before law-makers and
government members often denied the existence of such and claimed that
"NGOs are exaggerating to get grants", the death of the young woman,
mother of an 18 months old child, proved that the issue does exist and
needs measures.
While a 16-day campaign is held in Yerevan against gender
discrimination and violence (it launched on November 25 -
International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women, and will
last till December 10, International Day of Human Rights), another
case of a husband killing his wife was completed in Vayots Dzor
province.
Resident of Aghavnadzor village Yurik Babayan, who killed his wife
Anahit Babayan, got sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. Twenty seven
years of marriage for the mother of three sons ended with a cruel
death. According to testimony, the husband first physically abused
her, then dragged her to the courtyard of the house, as he testified
"not to mar up the house", and beat her to death with pieces of
concrete and a bludgeon.
Human and women's rights activists have a hope that these tragic cases
will sober officials and make them finally adopt laws against domestic
violence.
"These are regrettable facts, which might have been possible to
prevent, if there was a law on domestic violence obliging the state to
create a developed network of shelters for women who have found
themselves in such predicaments. They would be escorted to a shelter
by special-trained police officers," says director of Women's Resource
Centre Lara Aharonyan.
The passing of the law on domestic violence has been postponed since
2007, promises are voiced almost annually, but "the ice is not
moving".
"I believe by December 10 the complete legislative package will be
submitted to the government, and we will solve the issues by law in
the nearest future having the most effective levers of preventing
tragic consequences of domestic violence," Lala Ghazaryan, head of the
department for Family, Women and Child Affairs at the ministry of
labour and social affairs, told ArmeniaNow.