Public Defender Nino Lomjaria is expressing sorrow at the murder of a woman in Tbilisi on 13 April 2018 and is offering sympathy to the family and relatives of the victim.

Despite the fact that the rate of identification of domestic violence has increased in recent years and at first glance, the problem has moved from a closed social circle to public space, the number of brutal forms of violence and murder is still high. 14 out of 26 cases of killing of women in 2017 were a result of domestic violence and 12 out of 15 murder attempts were related to domestic crimes.

The Public Defender has been constantly indicating the inefficiency of protective measures and necessity for strengthening preventive measures. Unfortunately, threats are not properly assessed, effective measures are not taken to protect victims and enforcement of protective measures is not properly monitored, which negatively affects the rights of victims of violence. No proper attention is paid to the history of violence, past cases and victim's experience when studying the cases of domestic violence.

Along with the efforts of the law enforcement agencies, it is important the state to focus on awareness raising and strengthening of social workers, which is of special significance due to the specifics of domestic violence. Activity of each member of the society plays a serious role in this process.

In addition, it is important the Criminal Code to provide a definition of femicide, as well as a penalty, like in case of murder committed under aggravating circumstances, since femicide is murder conditioned by discriminatory motive – to gain power and right to own a woman, which makes it different from other crimes.