Every year, tens of thousands of Russian women and children experience violence in their families – assault, rape, even attempted murder. Years after escaping with her mother, Tatyana, now 29, says domestic abuse must be tackled and punished before it gets out of control. Larisa Ponarina, deputy director of the Anna Center, an NGO helping victims of domestic violence, suggests that more than 14,000 women die every year as a result of domestic abuse. One of the few countries still to adopt a specific domestic violence law, Russia hasn’t signed or ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence which came into force in August 2014. All attempts to pass a domestic violence law in the past 10 years have been unsuccessful.

Source: The Guardian August 18, 2016 06:00 UTC