MOSCOW, February 21 (RAPSI) -A UN committee will hear a complaint from a Chechen woman on domestic violence that was rejected by the European Court on Human Rights (ECHR), a legal director from Astreya, Furkat Tishayev, told RAPSI on Friday.

Tishayev added that the complaint was filed by Chechen resident Shima Timagova for physical abuse by her former husband. “Timagova's husband repeatedly assaulted her, which resulted in her disability. The court, however, ruled that the plaintiff had provoked the attacks and taking into account his pre-trial detention time, released the defendant after the hearing,” Tishayev explained.

Tishayev said that in September 2012, the woman lodged a complaint with ECHR, which refused to hear it.

“The UN committee responsible for implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) decided to consider the complaint filed by a victim of domestic violence in Chechnya. This is the first complaint of this kind from Chechnya passed to the Russian Government by the CEDAW committee,” Tishayev told RAPSI.

In July 2004, Russia ratified an additional protocol to the CEDAW convention, which allowed women to file individual complaints against the government in cases of discrimination.

If the CEDAW committee rules that Russia breached the convention, it could oblige Russian officials to take legislative and administrative measures to prevent domestic violence and protect victims, as well as pay compensation to Timagova.