R.P.Ts.
WARNS ABOUT
NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF ADOPTION OF LAW ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Interfax-Religiia,
29
November 2019
A law on
domestic
violence, in the event of adoption, will be fraught with serious
negative
consequences for Russia, the head of the patriarchal Commission
on Family
Affairs, Dimitry Smirnov, declared.
"When
the
practical implementation of this law begins, there will be
shooting. Does the
state need this?" the priest declared on a radio Radonezh
broadcast.
He
explained that the
struggle with domestic violence, which the authors of the draft
bill have
declared, is "simply a flag," but in fact the real goal of the
law is
to facilitate the removal of children from families and "their
delivery to
homosexuals for rearing," like in America, where this happened
after the
adoption of a similar law.
The
priest maintained
that the draft law, in essence, aims to replace the courts with
a
nongovernmental organization, which "hangs on the shoulders of
taxpayers,
and the result will be the destruction of the remnants of our
families,"
while in Russia half of legal marriages are breaking up. "And if
we
together, the whole nation, do not arise then this may happen,
because, you
see, these lobbyists have some means," the representative of the
church
declared.
In his
opinion, real
help in the struggle with domestic violence would be a direct
order from the
head of state to the minister of internal affairs that the
police should
respond to complaints from women about beatings by their
husband. "So that
the officers would come and intervene, as happened in my youth,
and detain them
for 15 days, at least, and the fellow would cool off," Father
Dimitry
said.
Recently in Russia, after several resonant instances of domestic violence, talk has begun about the necessity of intensifying the struggle with this problem. At the same time, defenders of "traditional spiritual and moral values" are afraid that the initiatives may harm the "traditional family."
Some days ago the vice-chairman of the State Duma Committee on Affairs of the Family, Women, and Children, Oksana Pushkina, stated that the draft law on prevention of domestic family violence should be ready by December. "Next week a working group on amendments will meet. We are now collecting (opinions—IF) from all ministries and departments. I think that by the end of next week, by 1 December, we will understand everything about the text," Pushkina said, responding to an Interfax question on 23 November.
To the question about when one may expect the adoption of the bill, Pushkina answered: "This will be a war of worlds. Who beats up whom? If we live in a progressive society, we should win."
She reported that for now there remain in the text of the draft law protective orders (restraining order for victims), shelters for women, and protocols for the police in the event of victims of violence. "Probably the bill will be truncated, but we cannot backtrack. If the version of the bill from the Federation Council is truncated, we will present our own. They may give in to the pressure of public opinion (those who oppose passage)," the deputy said. According to her information, senators propose adopting not a law but amendments to existing acts. "Roughly speaking, criminalizing beating, defining the term victimization, and making beating public rather than private. This is not an option," Pushkina declared.
On 25 November, the chairman of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, stated that lawmakers will not delay the introduction into the State Duma of a draft law on combating domestic violence; they will finalize it by the end of November. "We are committed to finalizing the draft law by 1 December with all of the comments expressed, and we do not intend to delay its introduction," Matvienko said.
"Today both in parliament and in the government there is a unanimous point of view that additional measures are needed in combating domestic violence. And there are no contradictions here," the speaker noted. "The law on preventing violence itself is an expression of the government's policy of the necessity of combating this evil, against what I would call societal vestiges. This is the formulation within society of total rejection of any forms of violence and an understanding that this shameful phenomenon is impermissible in our state."
At the same time, she expressed the opinion that fears of the dangers to the effect that the law will open the doors to excessive intervention in family affairs are groundless. "It is not so, nothing to it," Matvienko declared.
On Friday a draft of the law on preventing domestic violence was published on the website of the Federation Council. Over the course of two weeks it will be the subject of open public discussion. (tr. by PDS, posted 30 November 2019)
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