Category: Exclusive 
2009-02-19
Recently Georgia together with many countries of the world took part in the international action “Sixteen days of combating domestic violence”. Seminars, conferences, exhibitions and distribution of booklets on gender violence problem which remains one of the burning issues in the country were organized.
The Act on “Domestic Violence Combat, Protection and Support of Domestic Violence Victims” was passed in 2006. One year later, June 30, 2007, Georgian Government approved 2007-2008 State Action Plan on measures against domestic violence and protection and support of domestic violence victims. Obligatory as they were, those normative acts proved to be not sufficient enough to solve the problem altogether.
According to experts, the situation grew more complicated after the war of August 2008, the number of domestic violence incidents, especially against women and children having been dynamically increasing.
According to the Statistics Department the 2007-June1, 2008, data on perpetrators and domestic violence victims in Georgia are the following:
Male perpetrators – 320,
Female perpetrators – 37,
Male victims – 45,
Female victims – 313
The biggest number of perpetrators (182) is 25-44 years old
The biggest number of victims (183) is 25-44 years old
The biggest number of domestic violence victims and perpetrators was stated in Tbilisi (184-184)
The least number of such incidents was stated in Samegrelo and Zemo-Svaneti regions (4-4)
The Ministry of Domestic Affairs informs the Ombudsmen about domestic violence cases on a monthly basis. In his turn the Ombudsman uses this information in his semi-annual report to the Georgian Parliament.
The first 2008 semi-annual report statistics was as following:
Total number of arrest warrants issued in Tbilisi and the regions – 87
Male perpetrators – 78
Female perpetrators – 9
Victims: 81 women and 6 men
There were 17 criminal suits on domestic violence (16 males and 1 female), sentences were passed in 16 cases, and one case (in which a wife murdered her husband who had been abusing her for many years) was remitted for further examination.
NGO representatives and local experts don’t agree with the statistics. They believe it doesn’t reflect the real situation, as the majority of domestic violence facts are never stated. In spite of NGO and International Organizations efforts to disseminate among Georgian population the Domestic Violence Law, mechanisms of counteracting domestic violence, victims’ protection and support, certain negative stereotypes still dominate in Georgian society. Domestic violence victims prefer to conceal their problem from the public and try to solve it with the help of close relatives and friends. It’s only in critical and hopeless situations that they apply to the Patrol Police.
According to the Ministry of Labor, Public Health and Social Security, in the framework of 2007-2008 State Action Plan and in accordance to the Presidential Decree No. 183 of July 28, 2008, the document “On Setting Minimal Obligatory Standards to make for Rehabilitation Centers for perpetrators and Shelters for Domestic Violence Victims” was approved., along with corresponding amendments to find financial resources for setting up a shelter.
The August 2008 events have affected the financial situation in the country and opening of a shelter for domestic violence victims had to be postponed for indefinite time. At the moment a place for the shelter has been found and the State Fund for protection and support of domestic violence/trafficking victims is negotiating on procuring financial support. In Tbilisi and the regions four shelters are run by NGOs, but they are not sufficient for a country in which the domestic violence problem is so grave.
Ms. Ketevan Makharashvili, one of the initiators and a lobbyist of the Domestic Violence Law in the Georgian Parliament believes that to solve the problem as soon as possible it is necessary to involve all institutional machineries and especially the Parliamentary Council on gender equality.
As for the rehabilitation centers for perpetrators, the experts believe that as long as there is no clear strategy and financial resources the issue is unfortunately out of the question.
Another problem is the problem of rendering social support to the victims and training of social workers in this field.
The Ministry of Labor, Public Health and Social Security has initiated setting of a task force which as far back as spring of 2007 worked out the Concept of “Social Support to the Domestic Violence Victims and Training of Social Workers”. The Concept provides for organizing social workers services. In particular, it defines social workers’ status and provides a list of obligatory legislative actions necessary for establishing social services and social workers data base, examining domestic lawsuit causes and developing rehabilitation implementation policy. Unfortunately, the Concept has not been adopted yet, and the problem is still there.
Close cooperation between governmental organizations and NGOs which have got a certain experience in training of social workers in domestic violence field could give a boost to the problem solution. For example, training of social workers in domestic violence field is one of the activities of the “Interdepartmental and Social Measures to Eliminate Domestic Violence in Georgia: joint efforts to implement the Law on Combating Domestic Violence“ Project, supported by UNIFEM and run by five Georgian NGOs. In the framework of the Project more than 50 state social workers and NGO representatives have been trained and certified on a university program. Similar programs implementation is planned to take place next year, which will increase the number of professionals in this field.
In the course of two-year exercising of “Domestic Violence Counteracting and Protection and Support of Domestic Violence Victims” Law a number of serious mistakes and lapses have been revealed. But in spite of numerous suggested recommendations worked out by state and Non-governmental organizations, they have never been reflected in the Law.
The first Bill “On Amendments and Additions to the Law on Domestic Violence” prepared by a number of NGOs was considered on the first hearing of the Parliament, but that’s it…At the moment there is an idea to organize a task force of NGO representatives, jurists and domestic violence experts (according to the latest information it is already functioning). A decision to launch such a task force was made at the presentation of achievements of the project “Interdepartmental and Social Measures to Counteract Domestic Violence in Georgia: joint efforts to implement the Bill on Domestic Violence Counteracting”. The experts are supposed to work on the second version of the Bill on Amendments to the Law “On Counteracting Domestic Violence”, which presumably will be ready by the next year beginning. At the same time a new 2009-2011 Action Plan of measures against domestic violence is being worked on.
According to jurists specialized in domestic violence cases the imperfections of the Domestic Violence Law hinder execution of court resolutions implying monitoring of safeguard and detain warrants execution. Definition of family members given in the Law is imperfect and that often hinders the justice to safeguard victims’ rights. The Law doesn’t specify a victim’s property rights which actually make impossible execution of the court resolutions. In jurists opinion there are plenty of such imperfections and as long as the Law is not amended and supplemented it is not possible to fully exercise it as a proper tool to counteract domestic violence.
In accordance to the Presidential decree No.211 of September 26, 2007 a Joint Commission for elaboration of gender policy in Georgia was set up. That was one of the tasks set up by 2007-2009 State Action Plan of gender policy implementation. The Decree obliged the Commission to provide for “discussion of gender related issues (such as trafficking and domestic violence), looking into the current situation in those fields, elaboration of state policy and monitoring of the State Action Plan implementation”.
No information on the activity of the Joint Commission has been so far brought to the public, and it actually has stopped existing.
The only institutional machinery that is operating in today’s Georgia is the Parliamentary Council on gender equality issues. After recent Parliamentary election its staff has been completely changed on a rotation basis. Ms. R.Kervalishvili, The Parliament Vice-speaker, became the Chairperson of the Council. The Council is to a certain extent responsible for the country gender policy implementation. So there is a hope that Ms. R. Kervalishvili will lobby development of gender equality in front of the Parliament and at least a part of the problems if not completely solved but will be considered by the supreme legislative body of the country.
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