The right to access justice for women who are victims of violence is an important prerequisite for the protection of women’s rights and especially for the elimination of discrimination and violence. Access to justice includes both the existence of appropriate legal regulations and functioning mechanisms as well as procedures that guarantee the restoration of justice, the protection of women, the prevention of violence, the prosecution of perpetrators and their just punishment.
This report aims to assess how well abused women’s right to have access to justice is protected in the Republic of Armenia. The report addresses the attitude of state authorities, from a police officer to a judge, towards abused women in the pre-trial and judicial stages as well as the challenges on the way to justice. It does not include the analysis of the amendments to the Criminal Code that came into force on July 1, 2022.
To achieve the above-mentioned goal, the court hearings on cases on domestic violence were monitored in 2021-2022, and the judicial acts made in domestic violence cases in 2018-2022 were studied. In order to reveal the existing problems at the pre-trial stage, in-depth interviews were conducted with women who were victims of domestic violence. Thus, this is a good opportunity to identify the specificities within the legal practice, in pertinence to criminal liability within domestic violence cases, along with the trends of criminal prosecution and the established judicial practice.
This report has been compiled by Human Rights Power NGO. It was commissioned within the framework of “Women human rights defenders stepping up against gender-based violence in Armenia” (2020 – 2022) project, implemented by the Coalition to Stop Violence against Women․
“Women human rights defenders stepping up against gender-based violence in Armenia” (2020-2022) project is implemented by the Coalition to Stop Violence against Women with the financial support of the European Union.
This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Human Rights Power NGO and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.