Exiled activists launch chatbot to help domestic violence victims

April 10, BPN. The Oliviahelp.org free hotline for women who have suffered from domestic violence has launched an information chatbot, the Olivia initiative told BPN.

The new service may help domestic violence victims obtain the necessary information quickly and efficiently, the activists said. It lists shelters and organizations that offer social, psychological, legal and emergency help. 

In early February, the Olivia initiative set up a free permanent hotline for women who have suffered from domestic violence citing insufficient support for domestic violence victims after the government’s large-scale crackdown on NGOs in 2021 and 2022.

In 11 months of 2022, the interior ministry recorded 70,000 cases of domestic violence in Belarus, with 15,000 qualified as minor offenses and about 2,500 as criminal offenses.

Belarus does not have a law on combating domestic violence. Such piece of legislation was drafted several times. In October 2018, Alaksandr Łukašenka sharply criticized it, calling the bill a stupidity imported from the West.