On June 19, 2018, a working meeting was organized by the Public Defender's Office and the Council of Europe Office in Georgia. Improvement of the mechanism for monitoring the Istanbul Convention for the purpose of strengthening the capacities of the Public Defender's Office and NGOs in the field of domestic violence and violence against women and international experience were discussed.

The event was opened by the Head of the Council of Europe, Cristian Urse. The participants were also welcomed by the Public Defender of Georgia, Nino Lomjaria, who spoke about the importance of ratification of the Istanbul Convention and noted that one of the priorities for the Public Defender is to combat domestic violence and violence against women.

According to the Public Defender, despite the serious steps taken – increased rate of reporting, as well as increased number of restraining orders and pre-trial detention, unfortunately, we still do not have positive changes and domestic violence and violence against women cannot be reduced.

"We see problems at every stage. Public awareness is a problem, but the high indicator of reporting indicates that women started to loudly speak about the problem; we see problems at the stage of investigation, while the monitoring and evaluation system of killing of women is just now being introduced. We also see a problem at the court stage, as the court, unfortunately, does not consider the discriminatory and gender nature of crimes. That's why it is important the gender sign to be identified,"- the Public Defender said.

When speaking about the lack of women's protection mechanisms, Nino Lomjaria said that women feel insecure after offenders leave prison. In addition, rehabilitation measures are not enough for women in the shelter and most of them still go back to the offenders, as they do not have other place to go.

The Public Defender positively assessed the support of international organizations and expressed hope that the Parliament would adopt legislative amendments aimed at eliminating violence and harassment, including sexual harassment.

The meeting was led by Sopo Japaridze, Chairperson of the Inter-Agency Commission on Gender Equality, Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.

The main principles and standards of the Convention, as well as the role of Council of Europe's Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) and the best practices of other countries were discussed at the meeting. The participants of the meeting also emphasized the role of governmental and non-governmental organizations in the process of monitoring the Convention. Discussion was held at the end of the meeting.

The event was held within the framework of the implementation and monitoring of the Council of Europe Convention on preventingand combatingviolence against women and domestic violence.