PRESENTATION FOR THE REGIONAL CONFERENCE “ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR WOMEN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE”

PROJECTS RELATED TO THE ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR WOMEN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE IMPLEMENTED BY THE ACADEMY OF JUSTICE OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA IN CO-OPERATION WITH THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

Dr. Anahit Manasyan

Vice-Rector of the Academy of Justice

of the Republic of Armenia

for Scientific Affairs

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of the Academy of Justice of the RA let me thank the organizers for the initiation of this great event, event of utmost importance and the invitation to participate in it. The issues regarding domestic violence, violence against women and women access to justice are of utmost importance for the modern societies. Hence, these issues have an exceptional significance also for the Armenian legislation and law-enforcement practice, correspondingly for the activities of the Academy of Justice of the RA, which is a unique institution in Armenia, offering mandatory trainings both for the candidate judges, prosecutors and investigators and the acting ones.

Taking the above-mentioned into consideration, the Justice Academy has continuously been implementing projects with regard to the issues of women access to justice. It is our honor and pleasure that we have started a deep co-operation with Council of Europe on the discussed topics and hope that this co-operation will be a long-lasting one.

The concrete joint projects implemented by the Academy of Justice of the Republic of Armenia and the Council of Europe on the topics of women access to justice are the following:

  1. Two-day seminar on ensuring equal access of women to justice for the candidates of judges and prosecutors (June 2017)

On the 15th of June at the Academy of Justice was launched two-day seminar for the candidates of judges and prosecutors. It was dedicated to ensuring equal access of women to justice through the activity of judges and prosecutors. The seminar was co-organised by the Academy of Justice with the Council of Europe within the program “Improving Women’s Access to Justice in the Six Eastern Partnership Countries”.

During the seminar the participants had an opportunity to get acquainted with the current state of gender equality in Armenia, the main obstacles related to the accessibility, Council of Europe Convention on “Combating and Preventing Violence against Women and Domestic Violence” (Istanbul Convention), the main challenges for domestic violence victims to access justice and the ways to overcome them.

During the seminar the participants had an opportunity to watch a film related to the theme. Besides the theoretical part, group exercises, case study and discussion were conducted.

  1. Workshop on ensuring equal access of women to justice for the judges and prosecutors (June 2017)

From 17th to 18th of June in Aghveran a workshop on “Ensuring equal access of women to justice through the practice of judges and prosecutors” was held. It was implemented in the frame of “Improving Women’s Access to Justice in the Six Eastern Partnership Countries” in which participated judges from First Instance Courts of General Jurisdiction of RA, Criminal and Civil Courts of Appeal of RA,prosecutors both from Yerevan and regions. The event was organized by the Academy of Justice with the Council of Europe.

During the two-day seminar the discussed topics are numerous: from current state of gender equality to gender stereotypes, practice of national courts, case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, access to justice for victims of domestic violence and also psychological problems, etc.

  1. One of the most important joint projects of the Academy of Justice of the RA and the Council of Europe was the adaptation of the Help on-line course on violence against women and domestic violence.

Within the framework of the cooperation between the Academy and the CoE the training course was adapted to the legislation of the RA by the Academy trainer Lusine Sargsyan. It is designed for judges, prosecutors, investigators, advocates and for law-enforcement bodies. The kick-off meeting of the Council of Europe HELP online training course on "Violence against women and domestic violence" took place on the 14th of December at the Academy of Justice. The first set of the delivery of the on-line course started right after the kick-off meeting, and the certificates were handed to the participants successfully completed the course in June 2018.

Now the delivery of the second set of the on-line course has started for judges, prosecutors, investigators and advocates.

  1. It is worth mentioning that a face-to-face course on domestic violence and violence against women has been developed within the frames of co-operation between the Academy of Justice and the Council of Europe, which has already been included in the draft annual curricula of the Justice Academy for 2019.

These were the most important, key projects implemented within the frames of co-operation of the Academy of Justice and the Council of Europe on domestic violence, violence againts women and women access to justice in general.

It is also worth mentioning in this context that in January 2018 Armenia signed the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention). On 13.12.2017 the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia adopted a Law «On the Prevention of Domestic Violence, the Protection of People who were Subjected to Domestic Violence and the Restoration of Family Solidarity», which entered into force on 31.01.2018.

Certainly, there is still much work to do in the discussed sphere. At the same time, we believe that all the already implemented and mentioned steps will lead to the imporvement of both the legislation and the law-enforcement practice of the Republic of Armenia in the mentioned sphere.  

Thanks for your attention!