Armenia - April 2025
Major spike in domestic violence recorded in 2024
Armenia’s Prosecutor General’s Office published annual statistics showing a 151 per cent increase in domestic violence in 2024 compared to 2023. A substantial increase was recorded in all categories of domestic violence–psychological abuse, physical abuse, as well as murder. Domestic violence support centers confirmed that statistics aligned with their experience, and that the increase was not due to a change in measurement or the tendency of victims to report. Experts say that the refugees suffering from the trauma of their expulsion from Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the lack of data on and support for victims of domestic violence in the former self-declared republic, could account for much of the increase. Another factor could be the increased circulation of firearms following Armenia’s loosening of gun control laws in late 2022. The Prosecutor General said that better interagency cooperation was key to reversing the trend and that it was working with police in this regard.
