On November 8, 2024, Public Defender of Georgia Levan Ioseliani, within the framework of the UN Women project, held a consultation meeting with representatives of civil society organizations and women's rights defenders working in the Kakheti region.

The needs and challenges of civil society organizations, the current situation in terms of gender equality and women's empowerment in the region, and the prospects for deepening cooperation between the Public Defender's Office and the civil sector were discussed at the meeting.

The Public Defender spoke about the issues of gender equality, women's empowerment and women's participation in politics; He emphasized the challenges in the country in terms of early marriage/engagement, violence against women and femicide and the need to strengthen state policy in this direction.

Deputy Public Defender Irine Chikhladze informed the participants in the meeting about the mandate of the Public Defender, the work done by the Public Defender’s Office in the direction of gender equality, as well as future plans in detail. She emphasized the importance of involvement of civil sector in achieving gender equality and noted that the Office would continue to actively coordinate in this direction with governmental as well as civil society organizations.

Among the issues raised during the discussion were the lack of programmes for protecting and assisting women in the Kakheti region, mechanisms for encouraging inclusion in the offender behavior correction programme and economic empowerment of women, the need to create support programmes, as well as the need for constant training of representatives of law enforcement agencies relating to gender issues.

The event was organized by the Georgia Office of UN Women and was financially supported by the Norwegian Government.