Georgian women’s rights organisations and experts on gender issues from the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Georgia met in the country’s capital Tbilisi last week to discuss how the Mission can engage more closely with these organisations and mainstream gender when patrolling the administrative border line (ABL) between Georgia and South Ossetia. Both parties discussed how the EUMM can help address gender issues in the country’s regions where civil society is not present and government visits are scarce, EUMM said in a press release.
EUMM Gender Adviser Stacy Ziebell outlined that the Mission integrates gender in its work through the network of seven gender focal points and by sending mixed-sex patrols along the ABL. The NGO participants stressed the need for information sharing to help civil society deal with specific gender-related cases in the areas monitored by the EUMM.
The EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia is an unarmed civilian monitoring mission. It deploys over 200 civilian monitors to contribute to the stabilisation of the situation on the ground following the August 2008 conflict. The mission started its monitoring activities on 1 October 2008, beginning with oversight of the withdrawal of Russian armed forces from the areas adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In December 2014, the EUMM mandate was extended for a further two years until 14 December 2016. (EU Neighbourhood Info)
