The Public Defender has addressed the Prime Minister of Georgia with a recommendation to ensure the revision of the legislative norms that regulate the system of social assistance, taking into consideration the importance of the struggle against domestic violence, so that the tendency to conceal/neglect the existing facts of domestic violence with the aim of maintaining the subsistence allowance is avoided and the safeguards for social protection of victims of domestic violence are strengthened; as well as to ensure the development of an effective system of exchanging information among the Social Service Agency, the State Fund for the Protection and Assistance of Victims of Human Trafficking, and shelters existing in the non-governmental sector, so that the measures designed for the protection of life and safety of victims do not contradict the measures designed for the social protection of victims and their children.

The Public Defender of Georgia received an application of citizen Kh. Ch. who asked for help to protect her from physical, emotional, and economic violence. Ms. Kh. Ch. And her underage child, L. R., are victims of domestic violence. Specifically, her former husband, mother-in-law, and other members of the family are subjecting them to permanent violence. Due to this, they were forced to leave their home and found themselves in the street.

The Center for Children and Women’s Rights of the Public Defender’s Office has made several attempts to refer Kh. Ch. and her child to a shelter of victims of domestic violence, though Kh. Ch. refused to take this opportunity due to fear of losing her main source of financial aid – the subsistence allowance.

As a result of analysis of the aforementioned problem, the Center for Children and Women’s Rights of the Public Defender’s Office has found that, unfortunately, the aforementioned factor often causes victims of domestic violence to refuse to move to a shelter, which, in itself, brings their safety under danger.