3) To compensate for the rent for living space to provide temporary housing, 4) To compensate for the costs of training courses for getting a job, except for courses stipulated in state employment regulation programs prescribed in the RA Law on Employment for unemployed persons and those not competitive in labour market. However, to date, no applications have been made and so we cannot assess if the process is user friendly and if the allocation is given out quickly. One criticism of this aspect of the law is that it is primarily geared to victims from a low socio-economic status. The problem is that, even if the victim comes from an affluent family, she is most likely to lose all her privileges once she decides to separate from her husband. Many marriages in Armenia are common law marriages and, in this case, there is no legal divorce and, therefore, no right to assets/ property. Often abusers do not pay alimony which also aggravates the situation. The parental family of the victim also refuses to support the victim because the separation/divorce is deemed as shameful. The ministry’s simple formula of eligibility for the payment for damages is not very well thought out and it needs revisions. In a victim-centered approach an evaluation would be done case by case.
Child Protection Service and Domestic Violence According to UNICEF, as many as 275 million children worldwide are exposed to violence in the home. This range is a conservative estimate based on the limitations of the available data. In Armenia,
57
