Prosecutor's Office against domestic violence

Domestic violence is not something to be hidden, silenced, tolerated, or suffered from. What happened once is likely to happen again in the future. One of the most common manifestations of domestic violence is torture, which is expressed in the systematic infliction of physical or psychological suffering on family members.

One of the fundamental areas of supervisory activity of the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Belarus is to ensure the rights and freedoms of citizens, and to protect their life and health from unlawful encroachments.

The prosecutor's offices of the Vitebsk region continuously supervise the enforcement of legislation by all prevention entities, aimed at strict compliance with the requirements of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On the Fundamentals of Prevention of Offenses" dated 04.01.2014 No. 122-Z.

In addition to submitting acts of prosecutorial response to the competent authorities, for detected violations of the specified legislation, prosecutors of the region actively use the powers granted by the criminal procedure legislation to restore the violated rights and freedoms of citizens who have suffered from domestic violence by initiating criminal proceedings. That is, by initiating criminal cases in the interests of persons who are unable to protect their rights and legitimate interests independently due to objective reasons.

In total, for 9 months of 2020, law enforcement agencies initiated 205 criminal cases of a preventive nature under Articles 153 "Intentional infliction of minor bodily harm", 154 "Torture", 186 "Threat of murder, infliction of grievous bodily harm or destruction of property" of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus. Of these 205 cases, 147 were initiated by prosecutors alone.

 At the same time, prosecutors initiate such cases at the pre-trial stage even without a victim's statement. Thus, the prosecutor's office exercises special powers granted by Article 26 of the Code of Criminal Procedure when the actions of a "domestic ruffian" affect the substantial interests of the state and society, and are committed against

persons dependent on the accused, or for other reasons unable to independently protect their rights and legitimate interests.

For example, the prosecutor of one of the districts of the region initiated a criminal case under Article 153 of the Criminal Code against a previously convicted citizen who, in January 2020, while in a state of alcoholic intoxication, during a quarrel, intentionally struck his mother on the head, causing her minor bodily harm. By the court's sentence, the said citizen was sentenced to 2 months of arrest.

In a criminal case initiated by the district prosecutor under Article 153 of the Criminal Code against the accused, who struck his wife during a quarrel, the court sentenced him to a fine of 52 basic units, with the application of compulsory treatment for alcoholism. Such examples are not isolated.

As practice shows, in cases where citizens become victims of tormentors living together under one roof, the situation is aggravated by the awareness of neighbors, friends, and colleagues of the victims about their beatings and the failure to report them to the competent authorities.

Unfortunately, for some reason, many believe that there is nothing terrible in a man beating his cohabitant, wife, parent, or children, citing absurd reasons such as "he beats, so he loves," "he teaches life," "she must be to blame herself." And this is one of the most important problems of domestic violence - a permissive attitude in society towards these facts. This problem of our society can only be eradicated through public condemnation of persons committing domestic violence and immediate reporting to law enforcement agencies of known facts of domestic violence. After all, victims of domestic violence, often for objective and subjective reasons, cannot seek help on their own.

If you, your acquaintances, or loved ones have become victims of domestic violence, or if you are aware of such facts, immediately report it to the police by calling "102".

Head of the Department for Supervision of Inquiry
and Operational-Investigative Activities
of the Regional Prosecutor's Office
Vasily Parusov