ABSTRACT

Women’s NGOs and NGOs working on women’s or gender issues were tar-

geted as an important component of civil society and as crucial players in

the larger task of fostering democracy in the former Soviet Union by inter-

national donor agencies. Of the various programmes related to women’s or

gender issues that have been promoted by donors since 1991, the largest

focused on the issue of violence against women (VAW). The interest in sup-

porting and funding programmes that combat VAW is influenced, as I will

discuss below, by the global civil society campaign on the issue, which led to its recognition in international forums and among donor agencies. After

explaining how VAW became a globally funded and discussed issue, I explain

the development and implementation of the anti-domestic violence cam-

paign of 2002-04 by local women’s rights and human rights NGOs in

Armenia. Based on participant observation, interviews with women’s rights

and human rights NGO leaders, journalists and academics as well as analy-

sis of local publications, I demonstrate how VAW was framed by the donors

and NGOs involved in the campaign as a human rights issue that has implications for democracy building. Finally, I explain and analyse the

broad based civil society critique of and resistance to the campaign and dis-

cuss the implications of this for democracy building in Armenia.