The Public Council of Armenia is calling on the government to refrain from ratifying the Istanbul Convention. President of the Public Council Vazgen Manukyan stated that it would be inappropriate to adopt a convention containing suspicious provisions since Armenia already adopted provisions on the prevention of domestic violence back in 2017.

“The government can’t sign every international document to seem democratic. There have been cases when the signing of a particular document has been conditioned by grants or other factors, but public interest also needs to be taken into consideration,” he stated.

Member of the Council Hovhannes Hovhannisyan added that the adoption of the Convention is inadmissible and that it contains risks.

In his turn, Archbishop Nathan Hovhannisyan noted that, in this case, Armenia will face a situation where people will be held liable for bringing examples from the history of Armenia or world history.