The Public Defender addressed the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia Davit Usupashvili regarding ineffective policies on issues of violence against women and killings of women. The Public Defender asked to make dangerous tendencies of violence against women in the country a subject of discussion of special importance; in addition, the Georgian Parliament to exercise democratic parliamentary control mechanism and in the nearest future to invite relevant members of the Georgian Government to a presentation of a report on concrete and practical steps aimed at problem resolution.

The Public Defender of Georgia welcomes efforts of the Georgian Parliament pertaining to improvement of the legislative basis in the field of domestic violence. Though, as the practice shows the main problem is implementation of this legislation.

Violence against women has long gone beyond a closed space. On the course of the last six months more than 20 women were killed and these killings were indeed gender-biased. Together with indifferent attitude of the society the main challenge is adequate application of protection and assistance measures. In most cases examined by the Public Defender‘s Office actions of law enforcement workers were limited to asking an offender to write a letter of acknowledgement. Current legal mechanisms of protection from violence do not include such forms and they are just the part of the prevailing practice which is completely ineffective. There were cases when a person had several such letters written but violence still continued.

The Public Defender of Georgia repeatedly called on the Georgian Government to form a special strategy to combat violence against women that would not only concentrate on conduction of effective investigation of facts of violence but would prevent such crimes to the maximum degree. He also addressed in writing the minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia to establish a working group with participation of experts of the Public Defender‘s office working on the topic though no effective steps were taken.

In his reports and special statements the Public Defender referred with recommendations on ineffectiveness of existing mechanisms aimed at eradication of violence against women and asked for their improvement. Though, to this day many of these recommendations have not been taken into consideration on the part of the relevant agencies.

“Since I have exhausted all leverage of existing legal response at my disposal for the protection of women’s right of life, I ask the Government of Georgia to present a report to the Parliament of Georgia and respectively to the Georgian public informing what comprehensive activates are planned and where mistakes were made. And this report should become a topic of discussion for the Parliament” – said the Public Defender at the press-conference held on October 21.