On July 22, 2010, the Public Defender and the Center for Women and Children’s Rights at the Public Defender’s Office held a meeting on the topic of family violence. The meeting was held with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Councils of Ethnic Minorities and of Religious Minorities at the Public Defender’s Office and by state agencies and human rights organizations working on the issue of family violence.

The aim of the meeting was to discuss the phenomenon of family violence in different ethnic and religious groups; the influence of cultures on the strategy of protection and support of victims of family violence; the peculiarities of perception and identification of and response to the facts of violence toward women in this or that micro social stratum; and development of effective strategies to activate the society to overcome family violence.

At the meeting, the Public Defender pointed out that starting from 2010, the Public Defender’s Office, with the support of the UN Development Fund for Women, is working intensively to protect women’s rights and supervising the protection of victims of family violence. It should be noted that exactly a week ago, a document entitled “Pocketbook for Police Officers on the Issues of Family Violence” was created with the involvement of the Center for Women and Children’s Rights. The Public Defender’s Office also takes an active part in the development of the National Action Plan for Gender Equality for 2010-2013. However, as George Tugushi pointed out, the best indicator of good work is that it is the Public Defender’s Office that a lot of women often address to first to protect themselves from family violence.

The meeting participants presented real facts containing family violence (with changed names and places) which the public in attendance discussed.

The representatives of state agencies present at the meeting discussed concrete mechanisms of the protection of victims and the effectiveness of these mechanisms in the reality of different micro social strata. And the local and international human rights organizations presented the international practice related to the aforementioned issues.