The Ministry of Internal Affairs held the final event of the campaign against child marriage, titled "Don't Deprive of childhood." During the meeting, the Department of Human Rights Protection and Investigation Quality Monitoring of the Ministry of Internal Affairs delivered a presentation. The presentation aimed to inform the invited representatives from governmental and non-governmental sectors, as well as local and international organizations, about the measures undertaken within the campaign. Our representatives, Linda Chikhladze and Nino Korinteli, were present at the meeting.
The presentation of the monitoring tool on the evaluation of measures for the prevention of violence against women and in the family was held, organized by the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia and the Council of Europe.
The monitoring tool is based on the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. Its purpose is to assess the impact of the state's prevention mechanism on issues of violence against women and domestic violence, as well as to identify specific achievements and challenges. The document will assist state agencies in planning and implementing future steps.
The meeting was attended by our representatives, Linda Chikhladze and Nino Korinteli.
On May 1, 2023, Ekaterine Gamakharia, the representative of the Women's Fund "Sukhumi", attended the presentation of the thematic inquiry report - "The Accessibility to Financial Resources for Women and Girls" presented by the GEC member, Ana Natsvlishvili, which was held at the Writers' House of Georgia.
The main speaker of the thematic inquiry group, Ana Natsvlishvili, together with the expert, introduced the inquiry outcomes and key findings. She emphasized the multi-sectoral format of work on the inquiry and noted that women's empowerment needs a systemic approach from the state, as well as a unified clear vision and policy. As elucidated, the inquiry included meetings with the representatives of the state institutions, the banking sector, civil society, and donor organizations. The Group held thematic meetings in 9 municipalities with the entrepreneur women, local authorities, and society, where the head of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" Tbilisi office also participated and shared information about the challenges of displaced and conflict-affected women with the inquiry group.
The thematic inquiry report is available here:
Since the initiation of the Russian draft law, we have launched a social campaign "No Russian law". Representatives of various fields of society and our female leaders actively participated in the campaign as volunteers.
All the Georgian people were united in the aforementioned contradictory process, which called up this draft law.
Our monitoring and advocacy team has started work on a new study - "Evaluation of the effectiveness of prevention tools of violence against women or/and domestic violence at the municipal level".
Monitoring is currently underway in the following target municipalities: Tkibuli, Baghdati, Terjola, Vani, Samtredia, Chokhatauri, Tsalenjikha, Zugdidi, Senak, Kobuleti.
On February 22, the Women Fund „Sukhumi“ participated in the preparatory consultation for the forthcoming 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in 2023 which focuses on “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”.
The consultation with all stakeholders, including Women CSO, international organizations and International NGOs was organized by the Government of Ukraine together with the UN Women. During the consultation the gendered implications of war on women and girls both inside and outside of Ukraine, as well as their role in leading and driving change was highlighted.
During the panel discussions different topics were explored, namely how technology and digital solutions are playing an integral role in addressing the socio-economic needs of war-effected women across the region, and how technologies and digital economy could efficiently facilitate gender responsive recovery and development and reduce existing gender digital gaps.
Council of Europe Office in Georgia and the Governmental Administration hosted on 13 February a conference to present the recommendations provided to Georgia by GREVIO, the independent expert body which monitors the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), as well as by the Committee of the Parties to the Istanbul Convention. At the event, representatives of non-governmental organisations and academia together with the State agencies and Maria-Andriani Kostopoulou, GREVIO member and second vice-president of GREVIO, discussed the steps to take to implement the 16 recommendations approved by the Committee of the Parties to the Convention in December 2022. The recommendations are the most pressing as indicated in the first GREVIO baseline report on Georgia published in November 2022. Georgia is to submit a report on the implementation of the recommendations to the Committee of the Parties by the end of 2025.
In order to implement the National Human Rights Strategy for the years of 2022-2030, the Government of Georgia started working on the development of the new National Human Rights Action Plan. Members of the state agencies listed under the Government Decree N143 of March 2, 2022, representatives of international/donor organizations, as well as respresentatives of more than 80 NGOs attended the meeting, among Women Fund “Sukhumi”.
At the end of the meeting, the importance of the involvement of international and local non-governmental organizations in the drafting process of the National Human Rights Action Plan was once again underlined and the timeframe for their feedback on the first draft of the action plan was discussed. However, during the discussion, the representatives of local non-governmental organizations drew attention to the main challenge of cooperation on the part of state agencies, which implies not taking into account the recommendations offered by civil societies in the state policy. Of course, it makes each of us lose the motivation to work together.
Our representative - Linda Chikhladze participated in the info-sharing meeting of the Secretariat of the Sustainable Development Goals Council.
The non-governmental organizations participating in the meeting received information regarding the mechanisms for promoting the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Among them, the activities and structure of the Sustainable Development Goals Council, the four thematic working groups included in it, and the opportunities and importance of being involved in them. Linda Chikhladze shared the best practices of the Women Fund “Sukhumi” work with them.
The Human Rights Protection and Investigation Quality Monitoring Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia (MIA) held a meeting with the Task Force on Ending Violence against Women and Girls (Task Force on EVAWG). Representatives of the international, non-governmental organizations working on EVAWG and the Public Defender's Office of Georgia also participated in the workshop. They discussed the outcome of the activities carried out in combating domestic violence and/or violence against women in recent years, the existing challenges and ways forward. The meeting was held with the initiative of the MIA, in cooperation with UN Women, within the framework of the UN Joint Programme "For Gender Equality" supported by Sweden.
In her speech, Linda Chikhladze focused on the need for additional child care services for the economic empowerment of women, and on the importance of early implementation of programs to correct the behavior of perpetrators for the effective prevention of violence against women.