Alina Farkas on how men support the culture of violence. If he hits you, he will go to jail: new laws against domestic violence have appeared in Ukraine

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It comes in waves. One of the women begins to speak, and it’s as if the floodgates are opening. Women talk about the violence they experienced. A flash mob launched on Facebook by Ukrainian journalist Anastasia Melnichenko about the violence experienced by women has already spilled out beyond the country. Ukrainian women tell their stories under the tag #I'm not afraid to say, Russian women - under the tag #I'm not afraid to say.

It's scary to read them. Even I, that person who faced violence, that person who, at the age of eight, found himself in the same elevator with a real maniac (then he was caught and it turned out that he raped, killed and dismembered many children) and who miraculously managed to escape, I am dying from the thought of how much of this violence there is around.

But what is most shocking is the reaction of the men. Among them there are many normal people who react in much the same way as any adequate person in this situation. They are horrified. They sympathize. They ask how to help and whether it is possible to somehow protect the women they know.

However, I would not like to talk about these men. About others. About those who say that this is a “man-hating” flash mob. It seems to me that these are the people who immediately associated themselves with the rapists, became close to them, felt themselves in their place - and were indignant: “How is this?! Why can't you rape women?! Those who are against violence are real man-haters!”

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One elderly young man even wrote a long post reflecting that feminists are not fighting the cause, but the effect. With the fact that pubescent boys suffer from a lack of sex and the inability to relieve sexual tension. Now, if teenagers had access to cheap and widespread brothel houses with “special women for sex” (I’m not kidding, this is a quote about special women for sex!), then boys would go there and not pester normal girls. Something like: “Feminists! Give us special women that we can rape so we don’t rape everyone else!”

However, it is not this category of men that I want to talk about in this column. It seems to me that nothing will fix them at all, and I just hope that these men with the mentality of a rapist will not hesitate to express their thoughts so that women can immediately stay away from them without much thought.

I'm more concerned about "decent" men who "care" about women. Give advice about correct behavior. How to avoid being raped or molested. One recently advised my friend (married financial director forty-five years old) “don’t be greedy for baboons who fluff their tails in front of women and fool their heads in order to take advantage of them later.” These men have some kind of amazing, selective blindness. It’s as if they don’t see or read all these stories. They don’t read that most often they harass very young and defenseless children - from eight to fifteen years old. That is, those who cannot answer will be embarrassed to shout, those who have fear of an adult. Or that most often girls are harassed or raped not by some random maniacs jumping out of a bush, but by close relatives, family friends, and teachers. That is, those people about whom it is almost impossible to complain. And those that are almost impossible to avoid.

Also, in the eyes of those same fiery pseudo-defenders, those same bush maniacs rape only “special” women. Apparently, those who walk around at night, drunk, wearing fishnet tights and no panties. And with the inscription “fuck me” on the chest. In general, it apparently doesn’t occur to them that even in this case women cannot be raped. And again - that same blindness. The youngest rape victim I read about in this flash mob was five years old. The eldest is seventy-four. The smallest number of women who were attacked were in that “dangerous, designated rape” situation. Most of them were at home, visiting a close friend, visiting relatives, visiting their grandmother at the dacha, walking home from school or college, or at work. That is, in situations that women cannot avoid. Especially if this “woman” is eight years old.

In a separate way, it amazes me that “defenders of women” always come to women in fasting to explain to them how to behave correctly, how to observe “basic caution” so that you do not get raped. I have not seen any of them in the comments under the posts of those who justify violence. Nobody said: are you crazy? If you are afraid that you will not be able to restrain yourself, then do not be alone with a woman! If you hate “dynamic girls,” then wait until the moment when the woman herself jumps on you and begs for sex. If you are afraid of a false accusation of rape, do not engage in promiscuity, do not move on to sex too quickly, but only after you are sure that you are dating a good and decent person. So you're with much more likely Don’t create a threat to a woman, don’t get involved with a “dynamo” and don’t become a victim of a slander.

But no, this usually never occurs to any defender of women. It also doesn’t occur to you that if rapists (pedophiles, scammers, murderers) looked like rapists, pedophiles, scammers and murderers, then they would not be able to rape, deceive or kill anyone. Women have the responsibility to dress appropriately so as not to arouse men. Apparently, it is believed that all men are turned on by the same thing. And there’s a magical secret: when you put it on, everyone gets excited. If you put something else on, no one notices you. My friend was attacked by a maniac in the entrance of her house last year. The first question her friends and the police asked was what was she wearing? She was wearing a huge man's peacoat. Then, fortunately, she managed to fight back, and the maniac was even caught. It turned out that he had raped a lot of women in their area. His trigger was blondes. And my friend had just dyed her hair gold the day before. Can she be considered guilty for what she did not foresee? After all, it could! It is known that men really like blondes...

The question is that, unfortunately, there is not and cannot be any “safety precautions”. Once I was saved from a group of drunken teenagers by some creepy-looking criminal. A year later, he tried to rape close friend my close friend. The most intelligent son of a professor who looked after me for a long time, touchingly and delicately.

I would say that there is only one criterion for a victim - that she was born a woman. But this is not true either. This topic is too taboo, but men, especially in childhood and adolescence, also often become victims of harassment.

I would say that there is only one criterion for a rapist - that he is a man. But this is not true either. One of the most traumatic attacks in my life was committed by a woman: she groped me on a bus. I was fifteen years old at the time, and what happened was so out of my head and so frightening that for the next few years I walked exclusively - I was very afraid to meet her again. I would say that you need to tell your mother everything. But I know dozens of mothers—good, caring mothers—who answered their daughter’s complaints: “It seemed to you.” Or: “You’re making it all up.” Or: “He is a very good person, don’t slander him.” And they quite sincerely thought so.

The situation from this side seems wildly, beyond terrible. Anyone can be a rapist: a mother, a father, a close friend, even a four-year-old baby doll from junior group kindergarten. Anyone can also be a victim. From an infant to a frail old woman. And it seems that there is no way out.

But he is. Definitely, one hundred percent, always blame the rapist, not the victim. To create an environment in society in which it would not be a shame to say “I was raped,” but it would be shameful to say “I was raped.” None of the victims of these stories were told by their parents to “be quiet, it’s shameful,” but even the smallest girls experienced frenzied, wild, incredible shame when confronted with violence. Which made it difficult to resist. Which prevented them from calling for help—many parents were quietly drinking tea behind the wall at the moment of violence! And the girl was afraid to scream that the music teacher was touching her breasts. The shame that even now, many years later, prevents many women from talking about what happened to them.

If we shift the focus from the victim to the rapist: what brought him to this point? How was he raised? What was he doing this evening? Why didn't his friends follow him and help him escape the violence? If the rapist becomes the only cause and perpetrator of violence, then the world will become a little better. A little safer. In any case, we will definitely stop being afraid to speak. And this is already a big deal.

To sincere Ukrainians

As part of the promotion of gender equality and juvenile justice in Ukraine, a mass action began for the re-education of the Ukrainian generation from the so-called. old family stereotypes that supposedly need to be overcome. What kind of family stereotypes are these? And what the new model family and society? The term family stereotypes ridicules a normal decent family, which has a father, mother and children, which creates conditions for complementarity, for happy cohabitation and healthy education future generation. They are trying to eradicate all this gender equality as something negative. Statistics show that in Ukraine a large percentage of marriages end in divorce. Gender equality does not solve this problem. It doesn't care about young people building healthy families on the foundation sacrificial love between spouses and their love for children. This love is a form of mutual sacrifice and giving up one's demands in favor of the other. True love is the opposite of false love, which sees only its own selfish benefit and seeks its rights. Calls his responsibilities towards others discrimination and domestic violence.

First of all, we must say that Christianity cultivated and truly civilized paganism, which even made human sacrifices to demons (Satanism) and was always associated with immorality (homosexuality and other perversions). The Bible points to great dignity man created by God in His image. In addition to the mortal body, he has an immortal spiritual essence, and through this he is likened to God. God created man as male and female. This human life is just a test phase to see whether man will choose eternal life or he will refuse it and will suffer forever. Essentially, we are talking about either choosing the truth, accepting God’s and natural laws (conscience), or opposing it, as is happening in the EU, by pushing anti-values, etc. laws against humanity and nature (gender-gay equality). Absurd chatter about gender equality wants to create some masculine women or effeminate men who are unable to perceive real life, associated with daily patience and self-denial. In Christianity, the relationship between a man and a woman in marriage is a Sacrament and it is a bond for life. We are talking about a union between a man and a woman who promise before God that together they will bear good and bad, right up to death. You can write whole books of examples of selfless love and mutual sacrifice of spouses and pure love to children, as well as children to parents. For example: in a family that had 5 children, the wife was paralyzed and was in a wheelchair. It didn’t even occur to my husband to leave this family, selfishly follow his instinct and cynically seek his own self-realization. Despite the fact that he was still young, he accepted this cross and patiently cared for his paralyzed wife all his life, and remained faithful to her until death.

Women who married alcoholics, but drew strength from prayer and God's word, were able to endure patience from their husbands all their lives in order to save the family and prayed for them all their lives. Christian women about a hundred years ago, family protection laws (ban on the sale of alcohol) were pushed into the United States. However, today's feminist women are pushing the opposite laws to destroy the family through gender and juvenile justice.

Today, gender-gay politics came out with the slogan “I am against domestic violence.” This slogan, strictly speaking, is a big deception. In reality, gender-gay politics lead to more violence. The smallest manifestation of the feelings of one, which does not coincide with the will of the other in the family, is qualified as mental violence. On the other hand, the fact that one inflicts patience on another with his egoism qualifies as his “right and freedom.” This slogan “fight against violence” essentially serves to destroy those last families who live normally. Why? The slogan one-sidedly emphasizes selfishness and directly encourages one to seek out and observe the weaknesses of another. No marriage can survive in such an atmosphere! Every marriage is experiencing or has already experienced some kind of crisis. The main cause of the crisis was the selfishness of both sides! Spouses in Christian communities need to be led to truthful maturity so that they are able to admit their mistakes and learn to overcome them. In this way it would be decided marital crises, and a large percentage of divorces would decrease. This is the path of truth and sacrifice - love. This is how children would grow up in two-parent families, looking at good example parents. And it would be for them best dowry for life. The phrase “I am against domestic violence”, as modern gender propaganda understands it, is complete absurdity and deception! In reality, we are talking here about an egoistic orientation towards oneself and an uncritical, intolerant and selfish position in relation to another. Every marriage will fail on such principles! How much damage in interpersonal relationships will arise just because two people who even love each other and want the same thing, but each in a different way. If they do not communicate with each other, or if one of the parties lashes out and scolds the other, then it is not at all a solution to the conflict to call a hotline and complain about mental or physical abuse. The solution to interpersonal conflicts, especially in the family, is to be able to ask each other for forgiveness and for both parties to learn from their own mistakes. Our Savior Jesus Christ gives in the Gospel Golden Rule: “And as you want people to do to you, do so to them.”(Luke 6:31), and not some false slogan: “I am against violence.” On the contrary, he also says that we must endure violence: “But whoever hits you in the right cheek yours, turn the other one to him too.” God's word also says: " If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink: for by doing this you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be defeated by evil, but conquer evil with good!"(Rom.12:20-21). Jesus also says: "Love your enemies"(Mt.5:44).

The whole hypocritical campaign “I am against domestic violence” does not at all serve as a true motivation, so that for men, for example, some Christian events would be organized, where they would have the opportunity to internally turn to God and thus be freed from alcoholism and the bad habit of smoking or a certain dependence on impurity, which violates mutual marital relations and fidelity. If this were indirect for them, then they would receive the strength to overcome their sinful addictions, and at the same time overcome their tendency to violence. Modern music, occultism, false philosophies and ideologies develop the tendency to violence in humans.

The hypocritical slogan “I am against violence” indirectly states that women are victims of violence inflicted on them by their husbands. The reality is different. If a woman does not want to accept the objective truth, the objective responsibilities that the family requires, then most of the blame lies with her! If gender ideology deceives her by emphasizing only her demands and rights, then such a woman commits mental violence against her husband. If the husband can no longer stand it and raises his voice or scolds her, or even hits her, then the main culprit of violence is not he, but the wife.

It is necessary to realize that in every person there is original sin, which manifests itself in such a way that the mind does not objectively recognize the truth, especially in relation to itself. The Christ principle is at work here: “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not feel the plank in your own eye? Hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see how to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”(Mt.7:3-5) This is a true and truthful psychology, built on self-criticism and the truthful ability to learn from one’s own mistakes and from the mistakes of others. Instead of putting these proven laws into practice, different psychologists, sociologists and philosophers invent an unreal world that essentially keeps a person in darkness and incapable of any sacrifice and manifestation of pure love.

Jesus then says, “Deny yourself...” This principle is valid for every person and every day of our lives. What should we reject? Your anger, envy, resentment, self-sorrow, inability to accept the truth, seeking your own benefit by using others, cynicism, etc. The true dignity of a person lies in the principles of life he has adopted. The gospel gives us healthy principles, gives us motivation. Answers basic questions human life. Answers the question about the meaning of life, the meaning of patience, the question about justice, which in the final phase will emerge after the death of a person. We are talking about eternal patience for unbelief and evil, or achieving eternal happiness through faith in Jesus, and with faith the good done on earth. The goal of life is not to snatch your own imaginary happiness at the cost of the suffering of others. However, the purpose of life is to put God and His Laws, formulated in God's word and embedded in our conscience, first. Without this foundation, an atheist in the event of a serious illness has no motivation, for which he must endure. He doesn't even have the motivation to do good to others. If a person destroys the foundation of his relationship with God, built on love, then his relationship with himself is false and his relationship with his neighbor is also false. In no case can such a person be happy, either in this life, or until the end, or in eternity. Perverted instructions for achieving happiness, built on gender equality, juvenile justice, on false slogans about the so-called. women's rights, so-called child protection, etc. family support are an incredible deception. What are the fruits of these false principles?

1.​ In no case can we talk about some kind of love here, because it must be built on truth and justice, and not on a unilateral right that infringes on the other and commits lawlessness against him.

2.​ These principles do not lead to overcoming lawlessness in the family, but, on the contrary, create conditions for violence to occur. Blind selfishness commits violence and also causes violence as a reaction!

For domestic violence to actually be eliminated, there is one solution - truthful self-criticism and the implementation of 2000 years of tried and tested evangelical principles and laws. They need to be known and realized. Jesus himself is our example of how to overcome violence. He knew that human blindness and rigidity were almost insurmountable. Therefore, he himself voluntarily endured and died, and thus defeated the root of evil, which is spiritual and grafted onto every human soul and holds it in slavery with the help of egoism.

Whatever principles of life a person accepts, such a spirit dominates the family and bears fruit. If a young man, a young family accepts evangelical principles, and they give them strength in the spiritual struggle against selfishness, then harmony will reign in the family and true love. First of all, man must reform himself. After each confession of his sin, he will experience God's forgiveness. Through the knowledge of God's love he receives new strength see the positive in another, tolerate his weakness and at the same time want to sincerely help him. The truth about another's mistakes must be told with love and the right time. This is the wisdom of life in which a person grows every day if he decides to take the path of sacrifice and love. On this path, the struggle against selfishness and spiritual blindness begins. This means the fight against false philosophies, false psychologies, false pagan religions, false ideologies, but also against heresies within Christianity. They are created to strengthen human egoism and the inability to admit the truth to oneself, the inability to make a truthful sacrifice. The hypocritical slogan “I am against domestic violence” is built on a false philosophy of anti-values. Whoever accepts it, essentially commits violence all his life, because he looks only at himself - at his selfishness. Any manifestation of feelings to others is regarded only as an attack on one’s personality and as a limitation of one’s rights and freedoms, i.e. as discrimination.

Phrases about women's rights, child protection, etc. Family support brings the following benefits:

1.​ will definitely break up the family

2.​ the wife is led to selfishness and rebellion, and the husband is provoked to anger and violence.

The “I am against violence” bracelet is ridiculous hypocrisy!

The following fruits:

When a husband and wife separate, the child is usually left to the wife, who, according to juvenile laws, is not allowed to raise him, but she is forced to allow the child to do whatever he wants. Thus, the child is molded into a future criminal. If a husband who is getting divorced submits his wife to the juvenile justice system, then her child will be taken away from the wife. That is, we are not talking about any protection, but on the contrary, this is violence against a child, violence against a wife, who is deprived of a child and family, and she will find herself in a “charmed circle.” Subsequently, mental problems, powerlessness, remorse will come: how much evil she has committed. Depressive thoughts will arise: “no one loves me, I’m lonely,” she will start drinking or taking drugs, or become a public prostitute who will cynically harm others. She will probably contract AIDS, and then, out of hopelessness, end her life through euthanasia, and her soul will go to hell. She herself will commit violence and remain in a “charmed circle” of hatred and pain. Various fortune tellers, different sects finish off and demonize these morally disabled people. And this is the prospect of a new way of life. In addition, you need to remember that behind this philosophy about the so-called. protection of women and children, the so-called gender equality, which borders on or is already a mental illness. That is, a woman will become a lesbian, will fight for her gender equality, and will consider herself a man. Or vice versa, a man who has experienced failure will start drinking, leading immoral way of life, will completely lose conscience, become a ruin, a cynic, a burden to society, a victim and a spreader of AIDS. One can only imagine that 50% of AIDS is spread by homosexuals. The goal of gender policy is the elimination of the natural family and the introduction of a new model: homosexual partnership with the adaptation of children who will become victims of homosexuality and pedophilia. They will practically form future criminals who will take revenge on society for the selfishness of those who deprived them of a healthy family, healthy relationships between children and parents, and created unnatural ones for them; conditions without knowing the truth parental love And good example married life, built on mutual sacrificial love and love for children.

Thus, arrogant slogans against domestic violence are a trap, following the example of sects, when they want to drag these unfortunate and looking for people experiencing a mental crisis. These recruiters know how to suggestively and truthfully disguise the worldly system and the system of lies that have dragged human soul in misfortune. However, they offer a fake solution that will be presented to the deceived victim as the only way out. If a person becomes a victim of such a sect, then deep interference occurs in the psyche, it loses the ability to distinguish between good and evil, and becomes a medium of demonic forces that hide behind each sect.

Similar to this is the world policy of the so-called. gender equality, with policies to overcome family stereotypes and arrogant phrases about protecting children and women's rights. In reality, we are talking about quite the opposite: children will lose any protection, especially those who have been adopted by homosexuals. If neighbors complain that homosexuals are allowing pedophilia and abusing children, then according to international laws on the protection of sexual minorities, the neighbors will be punished for homophobia. There is a danger that neighbors, as punishment for homophobia, will have their children taken away and given to these perverts for mental and spiritual destruction. This policy of global destruction of not only moral, but also natural values ​​is the greatest crime in human history against humanity.

All totalitarian systems have eliminated the individual and society, committing violence from the outside, but this method affects every person, eliminates every family, and every child from the inside, invading his insides, which leads to cynicism and demonization. In reality it is hell on earth. Everything is mutual human relations, built on justice, sacrifice and love, are destroyed. Deformation occurs due to uncritical openness to sin, up to the total destruction of God's voice in us, which is conscience. This means believing in a lie and reconnecting with it. These professional liars of gender-gay equality are the greatest criminals of humanity, worse than the Nuremberg war criminals.

It broke out in August mass propaganda and brainwashing of the Ukrainian population. At this historical time, Ukraine can still save moral values, built on natural and God's laws, but, unfortunately, the Catholic Church does not provide any support in this. This Church does not warn or call on God’s people to pray and demonstrate for the truthful protection of the rights of women and children, but on the contrary, it is the cause of the situation that has developed in Ukraine. If the UGCC had called all believers to prayer and manifestation, then Ukraine would have been saved. This apostatic hierarchy, on the contrary, prohibits believers from accepting a truthful view of these things and imposes on them a false spirituality, which the “Registered Cossacks” and other organizations based on Freemasonry supposedly give us. This hierarchy systematically prevented and forbade believers to take part in demonstrations for the protection of families and children before the planned death of the people through homosexuality. The perception of the bracelet by young people indicates that although young people are very critical in many issues, in this main issue they allowed themselves to be deceived by specially trained liars in order to become an instrument of destruction traditional values and the introduction of homodictatorship and moral genocide of an entire people. Traitors to the people are trying to manipulate young people, thus covering up their betrayals and crimes against humanity. In this situation, it would be correct and relevant to wear a bracelet with the slogan “I am against gender-gay genocide in Ukraine” .

A person is born male or female. In childhood and adolescence, egocentrism and selfishness are most pronounced. This is due to untruth and unreality. Marriage helps two young people escape the slavery of their own selfishness. First of all, they are forced to perceive the other as he is, and this leads to tolerance, and then they will be obliged to raise their children, and thereby get rid of selfish thinking and behavior.

That is, natural family with the help of sacrifice and love, it shapes a person and leads to spiritual maturity. But modern philosophy gender so-called. protection of women and children leads to the total destruction of the family, and to the fact that the mental and spiritual growth and healthy development of a person becomes impossible. Apostatic Christianity, which has betrayed the principles of the Gospel and replaced them with various psychologies and ideologies, is not able to provide the thirsty person with the truthful spiritual drink and the truthful spiritual food of God's word. The Gospel is realistic, even though the utopian phrases of modern ideologists are only a trap for deceiving unfortunate humanity and eliminating the universal human institution of the family, and introducing the so-called. an alternative family of various perverts who neglect repentance, resist truth and pure love! The slogan: “I am against violence” does not eliminate violence. Healthy family is not afraid of conflicts. After each trial, a family that is truly rooted in Christ becomes more purified and stronger in true harmony. If the right decision is made during a conflict, then the time comes positive change which leads to truthful wisdom and to deeper unity between husband and wife and to more truthful mutual love. All this is built on healthy self-criticism and forgiveness. But this, however, is impossible without awareness of the true meaning of life and suffering! It is impossible to truly love yourself and your neighbor without the greatest commandment: “Love God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind” (cf. Mt. 22:37).

Hypocritical slogans

Women's rights through gender equality

- this is a myth. Women have been deprived of the right to have their own children.

Family support

- This is a myth in gender politics. We are talking about the elimination of the family at its foundation. A healthy family is a husband, wife and children. A healthy formation is built on truthful and loving relationships.

Child protection

- in gender policy and juvenile justice we are not talking about protecting children, but about depriving children of their parents and making them unfortunate orphans!

Hotline

- This is a trap. It doesn’t solve the problem, but it drags the person into a trap from which they can no longer escape.

Laws against domestic violence

-​ we are talking about a myth that does not eliminate domestic violence, but on the contrary causes it, and a person is drawn into total slavery of violence, evil, dependence and manipulation of others.

Overcoming family stereotypes

- - we are talking about deception. The basis lies in the elimination of the last healthy remnants of natural relationships between husband, wife and children. We are talking about a complete loss of family comfort.

Introduction of new alternative forms of marriage

-​ we are talking about the introduction of homosexual “marriages”, which are not marriages, and about the legalization of perversions. They help eliminate the natural institution of the family.

Gender equality

-​ We are not talking about social equality between husband and wife, because in Ukraine it has already been legalized. Here, however, we are talking about false equality of mentally ill people who no longer distinguish whether they are men or women.

Adaptation of children by homosexuals

- - we are talking about a crime. Essentially, conditions are created for pedophilia, for the corruption and demonization of defenseless children

Discrimination against sexual minorities

- We are talking about a myth. In reality, we are talking about the introduction of a homodictatorship over an entire society by the homosexual caste.

Homophobia

- this is a myth. We are not talking about the persecution of perverted people, but about the persecution by these same people of defenseless victims who cannot defend themselves. Whoever defends them is punished by homophobic laws.

Non-traditional sexual orientation

-​ We are talking about a myth created by homosexuals. They try to normalize and impose all perversions associated with sexuality on defenseless children and youth.

The hypocritical slogan: “I am against domestic violence” aims to destroy the family, make orphans out of children and prepare hell on earth and after death!

Our Synod wrote to all sincere Ukrainians to pray from August 1 to September 21, 2010 that the authorities would not allow the adoption of perverted gender-gay and juvenile justice laws.

Dedicate daily at least one hour of prayer with this intention(this is your prayer guard!)

The bishops of the UPGCC bless you

Samuel ChSVVR, +Metodiy CHSVVR, + Ilya CHSVVR, + Markiyan CHSVVR

Lvov, 08/15/2010

- Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

- Deputies State Duma RF

-​ To the Orthodox bishops of Ukraine and Russia

Image copyright unian Image caption Actions against domestic violence have repeatedly taken place in Ukraine

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed laws on combating domestic and gender-based violence adopted by parliament in early December.

Despite the fact that some of the changes they envisage will come into force only a year after publication, human rights activists say that these laws can already significantly protect the rights of victims of domestic violence - primarily women and children.

The BBC, with the help of legal experts and human rights activists, tells its readers about the most significant innovations provided for in the documents signed by the president.

Without Istanbul

Actually, it all started with the fact that in November 2011 Ukraine signed the Istanbul Convention. Its full name is the Council of Europe Convention on Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. This fundamental document obliges the governments of the countries that have signed it to take specific measures to combat all forms of violence against women - from sexual harassment to beatings, from forced marriage to female genital mutilation.

While the convention was being prepared for ratification by the Verkhovna Rada, a specially created working group developed two bills introducing the provisions of this international agreement into Ukrainian legislation.

And then the unexpected happened. The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches was categorically against the ratification of the Istanbul Convention. Its members noted that they, of course, are against domestic violence. The reason for their position is the "problematic terminology" used in the convention. More specifically, the word "gender".

“The vague understanding of this term, the inconclusive legal interpretation warns believers that its introduction into the legal field of Ukraine... poses a danger to traditional family, identity and culture of the Ukrainian people,” said Father Alexey Petriv, a member of the Council of Churches, on the air of Public Radio.

As a result, after heated discussions in and outside parliament, it was decided that the Council would not yet ratify the Istanbul Convention, but would adopt two bills, which, according to experts, introduce the absolute majority of its provisions into national legislation.

Ratification of the Istanbul Convention itself - and, as a consequence, joining the European monitoring system for combating domestic violence - remains a matter of political expediency.

• What should children know about sexual abuse?

Therefore, says Oksana Pokalchuk, executive director of Amnesty International in Ukraine, on the one hand, the adoption of laws on violence is an important victory, on the other hand, Ukrainian human rights activists wanted more.

Now it's crime

“The main thing about these laws is that domestic violence is finally criminalized,” Oksana Pokalchuk told the BBC.

“Previously, if Vasya ran with an ax in his hands after Petya, it was classified as attempted murder, a crime. And if Vasya ran with an ax in his hands after his wife Masha, this is at most administrative. Because law enforcement officers said: it’s normal when a person runs after his wife with an ax. He runs around in all the villages, and here he runs, what’s wrong with that?” - she adds.

“The main thing in these laws is that domestic violence is finally criminalized Oksana Pokalchuk

Lawyer Anna Hristova, who was involved in the development of these laws as a representative of the Council of Europe, clarifies: domestic violence could lead to criminal liability before, but usually only the most serious crimes committed in the family were investigated.

“It’s just that we have a very widespread myth that domestic violence is not a crime. I used to tell police officers during trainings for many years that the Criminal Code has a long list of articles that can be applied to domestic abusers. That no one can beat a woman with impunity, even her husband. They listened all day, and then came up and said: “We didn’t really understand you, because domestic violence is not a criminal offense,” she says.

• Europe is becoming a hub for child abuse content

Experts say the problem wasn't just that law enforcement officers—mostly men—perceived domestic violence through the prism of gender stereotypes like "Beating means loving." People in uniform lacked a specific article of the Criminal Code, which would clearly and unambiguously establish: violence is a crime, even if it occurs “in family circle“and it doesn’t seem to concern anyone except the husband and wife.

So, from now on, an article has been introduced into the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which clearly defines that the intentional commission of physical, psychological or economic violence in relation to current or ex-spouse or another person with whom the offender is or was in a family or close relationship, may threaten the offender with a prison term of up to five years.

Withoutconsent

Moreover, the very fact of committing a crime against a family member will be considered an aggravating circumstance. And the punishment for it will be greater than if the victim were a random person.

A specific example: the punishment for rape under the Criminal Code is from three to five years in prison. If the victim of a rapist is his wife or partner, current or former, the new law provides for a prison sentence of five to ten years.

We have a very common myth that domestic violence is not a crime. Anna Hristova

“Crimes committed within the family by close people who fall within the victim’s circle of trust certainly have severe psychological consequences and lead to great suffering,” explains Anna Hristova.

Human rights activist from the Lvov organization Center for Women's Perspectives Galina Fedkovich also positively assesses this innovation and says that for many law enforcement officers in her practice, the very phrase “rape by a husband’s wife” seemed nonsense.

She draws attention to another “revolutionary” provision of the law: a change in approach to the very concept of rape. If in the old version of the Criminal Code this was the name for a sexual act committed with the use of physical force or threats, now in Ukraine the European approach will be applied: rape is penetration into the body of a partner without him voluntary consent.

"All people are different. Some people in a life-threatening situation will fight and defend themselves, some will run away, some will simply freeze. In cases of rape, questions often arise to the victim: why didn’t you run away, didn’t resist? To the offender, why- then no questions arise. New edition The Criminal Code leaves no doubt: there was no voluntary consent to sex, which means we are dealing with rape,” says the human rights activist.

Hotline

According to the new laws, the state is obliged to open a sufficient number of shelters for victims of domestic violence, as well as introduce a 24-hour hotline, whose operators would receive information about such crimes and immediately transmit it to the police, as well as provide advice and assistance to victims of such crimes. violence.

"the main problem shelters now means that there are none. The second problem is that most often women with small children turn to such shelters. Most of the existing state shelters simply do not allow women with children, arguing that they are not suitable for children. A woman is forced to either return to her tyrant husband, or freeze on the street near the walls of a shelter, there are such stories,” Oksana Pokalchuk describes the current situation in Ukraine.

New laws should change this situation, the human rights activist summarizes.

She calls not to downplay the importance of the state hotline on issues of domestic violence. Ideally, the human rights activist says, posters with information about such “call centers” should hang at every district police station, in every village council, and victims of such violence will have more possibilities be heard.

Ne approach

The new laws will require officers responding to a domestic violence call to assess the risk of re-violence and, if necessary, apply an emergency restraining order.

In other words, the offender may be required to immediately leave the place where the act of violence occurred and prohibited from approaching it within a certain distance. The abuser may be prohibited from texting or calling the victim.

“It is important that the police will be able to issue this order at their own discretion, even without a statement from the victims,” says Galina Fedkovich.

Maximum term The validity of the order issued by the police is ten days. However, by a court decision it can be extended even up to a year.

Child witnesses = child victims

A separate focus of the new laws are children, who, experts say, have previously received insufficient attention in the fight against domestic violence.

“Previously, if a child saw Vasya beat Masha or, worse, kill her, then best case scenario he was referred to a psychologist. Or they might not have sent it. According to the new law, a child who witnesses domestic violence receives the status of a victim and the entire scope of services and protection associated with this from the state,” says Oksana Pokalchuk.

In addition, the Criminal Code of Ukraine includes a provision that the commission of any violent crime in the presence of a young child is an aggravating circumstance and automatically leads to an increase in punishment for the offender.

Mitigation for the killer

New laws significantly change the Ukrainian Criminal Code’s understanding of mitigating and aggravating circumstances in dramatic life situations.

The accused can count on a reduced sentence if the crime was committed “under the influence of strong emotional disturbance caused by cruel or degrading treatment, as well as in the presence of a systemic nature of such treatment, torture on the part of the victim.”

"It worked like this: A woman cheats on her husband, an angry man catches her in the act of cheating. He kills her, and her 'immoral behavior' was considered by the court as a mitigating circumstance when sentencing the man," she says.

However, according to her, European practice prohibits mitigation of responsibility for “murders out of jealousy”, due to someone’s immoral behavior or certain customs.

Therefore, such a “mitigating circumstance” was removed from the Criminal Code.

But they introduced something else: the accused person can count on a reduced sentence if the crime was committed “under the influence of strong emotional disturbance caused by cruel or degrading treatment, as well as in the presence of a systemic nature of such treatment, torture on the part of the victim.”

According to human rights activist Galina Fedkovich, more than half of the women convicted of premeditated murder or infliction of grievous bodily harm killed or maimed their husbands or partners.

• Why a girl dies every 20 minutes in the world - media

“Basically we are talking about a long history of violence: a woman contacted the police, it did not produce results, it continued for many years. And one fine day it happened... Very often in such cases we are talking about protecting children,” she says.

Previously, Fedkovich says, courts most often treated women's murders of their abusers as “ordinary” murders, punishable by 10 to 15 years in prison.

Now the punishment for such a crime will be up to five years in prison.

Atneed for marriage

Some innovations provided for by the laws signed by the president look like Ukraine’s reaction to the changes that are taking place in modern world and, quite possibly, may become relevant, even if they do not seem so now.

"The modern world is a world of constant mobility. Representatives of various ethnic groups arriving in Europe bring with them certain practices that were not traditional for the local society. That is why articles on mutilation - the deliberate mutilation of female genitalia - appear in European legislation," says the BBC Anna Hristova.

The latest Ukrainian laws on mutilation are not explicitly mentioned, but they equate genital mutilation with grievous bodily harm, which is punishable by five to eight years in prison.

The new laws introduce into the Criminal Code the concept of “forced marriage,” which, according to experts, is more common in Muslim countries.

“To what extent this practice is inherent or not inherent in Ukraine is difficult to assess, because no one has conducted such studies. However, as far as we know, it is used, for example, in Roma communities. Moreover, we cannot predict what migration processes will occur in Ukraine in the future ", Anna Hristova tells the BBC.

One way or another, now forcing a person to marry is punishable by imprisonment for up to three years.

The same period - and this, as far as can be understood from press reports, is relevant for Ukrainian women caught in unpleasant situations, first of all, in Arab countries - inducing a person to travel abroad for the purpose of marriage will be punishable if this caused significant harm to the victim.

Correction

New laws provide for the creation of infrastructure for correctional programs aimed at “forming in the abuser a new, non-aggressive psychological model behavior in private relationships, a responsible attitude towards one’s actions and their consequences.”

Human rights activists have an ambiguous attitude towards these programs.

On the one hand, they say, it is good that the law does not leave abusers to their fate, and the state will provide them with a chance to return to normal life.

On the other hand, says Galina Fedkovich, the selection budget funds to programs with questionable effectiveness, which will most likely be implemented by specialists who are not ready for this, in a situation where the state has not fully provided for the needs of victims of domestic violence, seems cynical to her.

Reestr

In addition, a Unified State Register of cases of domestic violence and gender-based violence will be created, which will include data on each case recorded in the state.

The register will contain comprehensive data about the abuser, the victim of violence and the circumstances of such violence.

Data about the abuser will be stored there for ten years after the court verdict comes into force. If the person accused of domestic violence is acquitted, the information about him will be deleted immediately.

Experts say that thanks to the registry, it will finally be possible to get at least an approximate idea of ​​the scale of the problem of domestic violence in Ukraine: the figures announced by government officials and politicians now may differ significantly.

Skeptics point to possible problems related to the preservation of personal data of victims of domestic violence.

“Domestic violence is mostly a great shame for women. And children do not always want to associate themselves with it. Often victims of violence even change their place of residence in order to start a life with clean slate. And if we are talking about large cities, then this system can work. But in a small town or village, there is a high probability that everyone will know the information from the registry, even if you don’t want it,” says Oksana Pokalchuk.

Perhaps it is precisely because of such fears The Verkhovna Rada decided that data on victims of domestic violence will be entered into the register only with their consent.

See you in a year

One of the laws signed by the president comes into force immediately after publication in the Voice of Ukraine. Changes regarding the criminal block will take place in a year - that is, in December next year.

Observers explain this, first of all, by the fact that the implementation of the envisaged innovations requires a lot of time and resources.

Domestic violence is mostly a great shame for women. And children do not always want to associate themselves with him Oksana Pokalchuk

On the other hand, the state now has enough time to conduct training for law enforcement officers and judges. After all, they will have to significantly change their attitude towards the problems that long time they just closed their eyes.

"Of course, the fact that the law will come into force only in a year is bad," Oksana Pokalchuk from Amnesty International tells the BBC.

“We will continue to say: how many more women will die this year from domestic violence! Although, on the other hand, perhaps fewer. They have already begun to write about these laws, and, perhaps, next time someone will not raise their hand, they will think: who knows, this damn law has come into force or not, it’s better not to risk it. And when information about these laws reaches the “districts”, small villages, this could even lead to a mini-revolution on the ground,” she says.