News Russia: Bill To Decriminalize Domestic Violence

[claroscuro]

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/01/23/russia-bill-decriminalize-domestic-violence

I find this utterly heartbreaking.

 

[Casey_03]

To be fair, they already don't prosecute domestic violence. It is heartbreaking that they are willing to say it's okay on an official level, but i'm not sure decriminalizing it will change much. Many women are already abused with impunity, and police ignore any calls about domestic violence as it is.

 

[scout86]

And now we, in the U.S., have a president who thinks Putin is 'smart'....

 

[claroscuro]

I read in the article that an amendment to criminalize violence against relatives adopted in July 2016 (which was apparently Russia's first directly addressing domestic violence) received some tough opposition.

Judging by comments from the Senator who led that opposition, there is still a very long way to go for abuse victims. Sadly her views are still held by many, and in more places than just Russia. This bill was introduced to reverse that amendment.

I also saw on further reading that Russia banned protests against this new bill.
Dead Link Removed

To compare, South Africa, the country I grew up in, has brilliant laws against abuse of any kind. Yet they aren't enforced, and you are very likely to be intimidated, victimized and even threatened by police to dissuade reporting to keep statistics down.

As long as there is a desire to deny abuse, it will prevail.

 

[Casey_03]

Russia has banned protests in general. (Which I am actually expecting Trump to do next as well, but that's a different topic altogether). Not only does the legal system work against abuse victims in Russia, but there is also nowhere for them to turn. There was one remaining NGO in Moscow that helped battered women and it is now going to be shut down, if it hasn't been already. It's even worse in provincial areas. Most Russians in general don't consider it "abuse" if a woman is beaten by her husband/lover. You'd be enraged by how nonchalant people act about it there.

 

[Freedomfighter]

To be fair, they already don't prosecute domestic violence. It is heartbreaking that they are willing...

Agreed, to see information like that from a country such as Russia is actually rather comical, even though the situation itself is not comical.