Epress.am News from Armenia
The Pan-Armenian Parents Committee is spreading misinformation regarding the juvenile justice system, says an information video disseminated by Society Without Violence NGO. Producers of the video urge people to base their information on facts and make their own analyses.
Pan-Armenian Parents Committee coordinator Armen Boshyan, as seen in the video, says that juvenile justice system is "child murder," whereby a child can be removed from his family, based "solely on assumptions that that child might be undergoing so-called psychological abuse." Boshyan also said that there is only a small percentage of domestic violence cases in Armenia.
The video notes that the Republic of Armenia does not, in fact, have a juvenile justice system. "As for 'removing' a child from the home, according to Article 58 Section 1 of the Family Code, in case of the direct threat to the health or life of a child, the department of child and guardianship is authorized to take the child immediately from the parents (or one of them) or from those in whose care the child is placed," it says in the video.
The video also points out that parents can be deprived of parental rights if they treat their children cruelly — in particular, by "exercising physical or mental violence toward them and infringing upon their sexual inviolability."
As for cases of violence, the NGO notes that women often remain silent in domestic violence cases. According to the Women's Rights Center, only 6% of women who've experienced violence go to the police.
Video in Armenian only.