Statistical data provided by Zaruhi Batoyan are not false

In her Facebook post on May 4, RA Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Zaruhi Batoyan condemned the failure of the presentation of the book “My Body is Private” at “Bookinist” bookstore-café, and presented statistical data on the investigation of sexual crimes against children in Armenia in 2017.

Batoyan cited the data provided by the Investigative Committee, according to which 101 out of 161 sex crimes investigated in 2017 were against children.

On May 10, a note was posted on AntiFake.am according to which the statistics cited by the Minister is fake and does not correspond to the reality.

Fact Investigation Platform decided to address this issue to understand whether Zaruhi Batoyan spread disinformation.

AntiFake.am cites statistical data allegedly presented by Nelli Duryan, Head of Department of Protection of Minors’ Rights and Fight against Domestic Violence of the RA Police, according to which there were 80 reported cases of infringement on minors’ sexual freedom and sexual immunity in 2016, 71 in 2017, and 50 in 2018.

However, Batoyan mentions in her post that the source of the statistics presented by her is the data of the RA Investigative Committee.

And, indeed, the statistics cited by Batoyan was presented by former Head of Investigative Committee Aghvan Hovsepyan during the conference on “Crimes with the Participation of Minors” on 21 March 2018.

According to Hovsepyan, 131 criminal cases on sexual assaults were investigated by the RA Investigative Committee in 2015, 84 of which were committed against children, 157 criminal cases were investigated in 2016, 110 of which were committed against children and in 2017 161 criminal cases were examined of which 101 were committed against children.

Thus, the data cited by Batoyan are consistent with the source and do not contain disinformation.