On November 25, 2016, Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili held another public debate on the theme: Violence against Women and Girls Justified by Traditions. Speeches were delivered at the event by representatives of the local authorities, the Ministry of Health, non-governmental organizations and the Muslim community.

The main topic of the public debate was the recently released information about female genital mutilation, examination of which has been launched by the Public Defender on his own initiative. During the examination, local population of Kvareli, a district in the Kakheti region that is inhabited by ethnic minorities, confirmed the abovementioned practice and justified it by religious and traditional customs.

"Reports about female genital mutilation were unexpected and worrisome for all of us. This is most extreme form of violation of woman's health, safety, physical integrity and prohibition of torture”, - the Public Defender noted.

He emphasized the importance of the Council of Europe Convention onpreventingand combatingviolence against women and domestic violence, which wassignedby Georgia in 2014 and a separate article of which is devoted to female genital mutilation. The Convention calls on the States to take all measures to criminalize female genital mutilation, including inciting, coercing or procuring a girl to undergo it. The Public Defender underlined the fact that the Convention has not been ratified yet. He once again called on the Government and the Parliament to accelerate the ratification procedures.

The vision of the Ministry of Health with regard to the prevention of the problem was presented at the debates; in addition, the issues of the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, the role of local authorities in the eradication of the problem and recommendations of non-governmental organizations and the Public Defender were discussed at the event.

Speeches were delivered at the event by Mari Jobava, representative of the Government, Vera Baziari, chief specialist of the Healthcare Department of the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, Maia Avazashvili, Head of the Health and Social Affairs Department of the Kvareli Municipality, Elene Rusetsky, Head of the Women’s Information Center, and Yasin Aliyev, Mufti of eastern Georgia.

The event was moderated by EU project manager Levan Meskhoradze.

Public debates on various important topics are held each month and give representatives of the society, governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations the opportunity to discuss the problems of the population.

The public debates of the Public Defender of Georgia are funded by the EU project “Support to the Public Defender II”.