U.S. Department of Justice holds conference on "Support for Victims and Successful Prosecution of Domestic Violence"  

PanARMENIAN.Net - The United States Department of Justice held a conference on "Support for Victims and Successful Prosecution of Domestic Violence" in Yerevan, Armenia, on March 16, 2009. Three



American prosecutors and one social worker participated - Prosecutor Steven Kessler (U.S. Embassy, Yerevan), Prosecutor Arlene Markarian (Brooklyn, New York), Prosecutor Wanda Lucibello (Brooklyn, New York), and Social Worker Cristin Mathiez (Brooklyn, New York). Joining the Americans at the conference were Armenian judges, prosecutors, police, and representatives from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social and Labor Issues, the Civil Rights Division of the National Assembly, and international organizations such as UNICEF, OSCE and Open Society Institute Foundation in Armenia.

 

The American and Armenian officials discussed their countries' respective approaches to fighting all manifestations of domestic violence, as well as support for the victim, investigation of a domestic violence case, and prosecution of such a case where the victim refuses to cooperate.  



U.S. Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch opened the conference.  In her remarks, the Ambassador noted that although the statistics on domestic violence in the U.S. are sobering, much progress has been made in the past twenty years. The Ambassador urged the Armenian authorities in attendance to do all that can be done to reduce domestic violence and care for its victims.  



The domestic violence conference is just one of several sessions held by the U.S. Department of Justice in Yerevan to support Armenian law enforcement. In 2008, the USDOJ held conferences for Armenian judges, prosecutors, police and defense attorneys on the European Convention on Human Rights, corruption prosecution, financial crime investigations, the rules of evidence in adversarial proceedings, and the development of Armenian jurisprudence and case law.