The Public Defender’s 2016 Parliamentary Report on Gender Equality brings attention to the current existing circumstances of gender equality in Georgia.

Incidents of domestic violence and violence against women are growing, which provide evidence of the need for government efforts to offer victims effective services and protection from repetitive violence. During the reporting period, the examined data confirm that services to protect victims from violence need to be improved, as the social-economic progress of victims situations, as well as assistance to achieve independent living and find new employment are not being provided through the current services offered at shelters. Once again, it was also shown that effective inclusion of social workers in cases of domestic violence remains problematic.

During preparation of the 2016 report, in February and March, the Public Defender of Georgia requested information from the responsible agencies about gender-based violence, including information about prevalent forms of violence, the effectiveness of protection mechanisms, and the general manifestations and trends of domestic violence and violence towards women, as well as an evaluation of those trends.

It should be noted that, unlike in the 2015 reporting year, the filling of requests for statistical information on gender-based violence in a complete and timely manner was a key problem in preparing the 2016 report. This lack of cooperation should unambiguously be viewed as a backwards step and indicates that a gap exists in the process for collecting and analyzing information. In particular, responsible government agencies are not producing complete statistical data about domestic violence and violence against women. Analysis of that data is also lacking.

Results of this examination also demonstrates that a united information database does not exist by which the Ministry of Internal Affairs can analyze and evaluate domestic violence data according to minimum violence, type of cohabitation, and repeated and continual acts of violence. As a result, a mechanism to evaluate the risk of violence does not exist, making monitoring the effectiveness of protective mechanisms and planning and implementing prevention activities practically impossible.

During the reporting period, it was disturbing to learn that the practice of female genital mutilation exists in Georgia, which is a problem that has been hidden from the public eye for several years. In response to this discovery, a coordinated, consistent and needs-based response from the government has been requested.

It is welcomed that, at the beginning of 2017, the Georgian government considered the Public Defender of Georgia’s recommendation to ratify the Council of Europe’s Convention on “Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence”. This convention includes several important guarantees for the prevention of violence and ensures protection and assistance for victims. However, it should also be noted that effective steps towards refining legislation to protect gender equality and women’s right were not taken in 2016.

During the reporting period, in accordance with the previous year, special attention was paid to women’s political participation. While an increase in female political participation was seen in the 9th Parliament, this increase was spontaneous and not a result of planned activities and the number of women in Parliament remains critically low. During the reporting period, the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia assessed the number of employees on the executive government level and conducted a gender analysis of the available data. The data reveals that women are equally represented in executive government ministries. However, data on the number of women in managerial and decision-making positions is alarming.

In regards to the legal situation of the LGBTI community, steps taken to improve the situation in this direction are only formal in nature and do not reflect the realities of individuals who are victims of systemic violence, oppression, persecution and intolerance on a daily basis. The government presently does not have a vision of how to ensure equal participation of LGBTI individuals in public spaces and their protection from homophobic-based violence. The legal recognition of the sex of transgendered persons also continues to be an important cause for concern. It is the opinion of the Public Defender that emphasis be placed on raising awareness of these issues and steps to be taken towards improving the situation of LGBTI individuals living in Georgia. In addition, hate-based crimes committed against members of the LGBTI community should be investigated in an honest, timely manner, and efforts should be made to prevent such crimes in the future.