On March 24, 2015, the Public Defender’s Office of Georgia organized a public debate - “The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence: implementation and monitoring”. The debate was held in the framework of the EU project “Support to Public Defender’s Office”.

The public debate aimed at drawing up prospective ways of implementation and monitoring of the convention with participation of stakeholders. The debate was attended by representatives of the legislative and executive authorities, as well as international and local organizations.

The event was moderated by representative of the UN Women Tamar Sabedashvili while support of the meeting was provided in the framework of the EU project “Support to Public Defender’s Office”.

At the meeting, welcome speeches were made by Public Defender of Georgia Ucha Nanuashvili and Representative of the EU Delegation to Georgia Eva Pastrana. The speakers stressed importance of the discussion and challenges existing in Georgia with respect to violence against women and domestic violence. The Public Defender once again affirmed that one of the main directions of the work of the Public Defender’s Office is combating violence against women and the PDO is ready to play an important role in both implementation of the convention and its further monitoring.

In the part of speeches of the discussion, representative of the Office of the Council of Europe in Georgia Tinatin Uplisashvili spoke about main objectives and history of adoption of the convention. It was also noted that it is planned to establish a group of experts on action against violence against women and domestic violence or so-called GREVIO candidates for membership of which have already been presented by participating countries.

During his speech, First Deputy Justice Minister of Georgia Aleksandre Baramidze spoke about the signing of the convention and progress of the process of preparation for ratification. According to Mr. Baramidze, the Ministry of Justice has prepared a package of changes to bring the Georgian legislation in line with standards established by the convention and which will be presented to the Parliament of Georgia during the Spring Session.

During her speech, Chairman of the Gender Equality Council of the Parliament of Georgia Manana Kobakhidze talked about amendments introduced into the Georgian legislation that aim at promoting effective work on domestic violence issues. In particular, Ms. Kobakhidze stressed new regulations and adopted legislative changes introduced for incrimination of forced marriage and removal of an offender for the purpose of protection of women – victims of domestic violence. She also expressed complete readiness to lobby for ratification of the convention in the Georgian Parliament and to actively participate in the process of harmonization of the legislation.

An important part of the debate was receiving information on activates already conducted by the Government of Georgia and its future plans that were provided by Assistant to the Prime Minister of Georgia on Human Rights and Gender Equality Sopho Japaridze. During the speech, Ms. Japaridze mentioned activities carried out in the area of domestic violence. Namely, in November, 2014, new composition of the Interagency Council for Prevention of Domestic Violence was approved. The council composition includes deputy ministers, the Public Defender of Georgia - with a special invitation and the right to participate in the discussion, General Director of the Georgian Public Broadcaster and head of the Analytical Department of the Supreme Court of Georgia.

In the framework of the debate, Head of the Gender Equality Department of the Public Defender’s Office of Georgia Ekaterine Skhiladze made her speech which concerned mechanisms of monitoring of the convention and the vision of the Public Defender on issues of implementation and monitoring of the convention. She also noted that the Public Defender’s Office of Georgia - as an independent agency aimed at protection of human rights expressed its readiness to fulfill the function of monitoring and evaluation.

The speeches were followed by a discussion in the framework of which the attending audience was able to ask questions to the speakers and express their views.