Framing Domestic Violence Armenian Women’s rights organisations participating in the process of constructing domestic violence against women as a social problem

摘要

The notion of domestic violence as a public issue, calling for official response, isrelatively new in Armenian society. Since the late 1990s, a movement of makingdomestic violence visible as a societal matter has arisen and expanded, withsupport from an international women’s rights movement. A growing amount ofwomen’s rights NGOs have emerged, that are besides working with awarenessraising, offering social services to victims of domestic violence. No such servicesare provided by the state, nor does the organisations receive any support from thegovernment. The NGOs’ activities have by many been received as controversialand contentious. When making claims for legal change and official response, theorganisations have been contested with threats, and accusations of destroyingfamilies and ruining national values. Even as the awareness about domesticviolence have generally increased the last decade, there is no clear conception of itin terms of how to explain its causes, or deal with its consequences. Whenapplying a human rights framework, the organisations need to reside a form of‘double consciousness', as they adapt to a ‘universal’ set of principles, but carrythem out in a local context of particular conditions. The study aimed to examinewhat conflicting discourses NGOs faced and confronted in their work, and howthis work was conducted. Qualitative interviews were made with NGOrepresentatives from five different organisations in Yerevan, Armenia, working inthe sphere of domestic violence. The study found that NGO members faceddifferent conflicting discourses when conducting their work, and that theysometimes, in a pragmatic approach, needed to adjust their language and claims,in order to be approved of by a putative target audience. Through these actions ofinterpretations and adjustments, NGOs take part in an ongoing collectivenegotiation process of how to define and perceive domestic violence againstwomen as a societal issue.