Public Defender releases statement on International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women

November 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. On this occasion, on November 25, 2016, the Public Defender of Georgia and UN Women Representative in Georgia Erika Kvapilova spoke about the challenges and problems in the field of violence against women and domestic violence with representatives of the media, the Ombudsman’s Office reports.

As reported by the office, the Public Defender welcomed the increased number of identification of and response to the cases of domestic violence compared to previous years, but he noted that given the scales and severity of the problem, more efforts are needed in order to prevent all possible risks and ensure effective response to each case.

According to the 10-months data of 2016, 13 women were killed under circumstances of domestic violence. The number of damages to health and other cruel forms of violence remains high. Police used protection measures in more than 2 000 cases. However, unfortunately, there were cases when law enforcement agencies failed to prevent domestic violence despite the fact that they had received notifications in advance.

"Our study results show that the law enforcement officers often neglect the risk of the repetition of violence and do not develop individual action plan for the victim’s safety. Given the current challenges, it is important to consider the women’s rights situation in the country during examination of the cases of violence and to take effective measures with regard to each case", - said Ucha Nanuashvili.

The Public Defender once again called on the Government and the Parliament to promote and accelerate the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. In addition, the Ministry of Justice and the Parliament should define femicide as gender-motivated killing in the criminal law.

Erika Kvapilova supported the Public Defender’s call to the Government to set up a femicide monitoring system in order to ensure that the public is informed not only of the cases of femicide, but of the relevant investigations and judgments. "The monitoring system will serve to increase awareness of this gravest form of violence against women, to strengthen response to the cases and most importantly, to prevent this type of crime", - said Erika Kvapilova.

The Public Defender joins the 2015 call of Dubravka Šimonović, United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, in which she urged all UN member states to commit to prevent gender-related killing of women, to establish a 'Femicide Watch' or a ‘Gender-Related Killing of Women Watch’ and to publish on each 25 November detailed analysis of the cases.