It has been two years since Georgia launched the process of ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. To date, the adoption of appropriate legislative amendments has been slow. Non-governmental organizations consider it important that this process be accelerated.
On December 5th, during the conference organized by the Coalition for Equality, representatives of non-governmental organizations and the Georgian Government discussed the issue of ratifying the Istanbul Convention, as one of the key instruments for reducing violence against women.
The so-called Istanbul Convention was adopted on May 7, 2011 in Istanbul. The Convention imposes an obligation on European countries to develop common legal mechanisms and legal norms against violence.
The signatory countries undertake the obligation to ensure women’s protection from domestic crime on the legislative level, collect statistics of violence against women, raise public awareness about domestic violence and rehabilitate and protect victims of violence. The Convention has already been ratified by 13 members countries of the Council of Europe.
The Minister of Justice of Georgia signed the Convention on June 19, 2014. In order to ratify the Convention, Georgia should first make necessary legislative amendments to comply with the Convention. Accordingly, the Ministry of Justice started working on a package of amendments in the second half of 2014. Public consultations on the legislative amendments were conducted in Tbilisi and other regions in 2015.
The Interagency Council for the Prevention of Domestic Violence was actively involved in the preparation of the basic measures required for signature and ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. A preparatory group for ratification of the Istanbul Convention was created on the initiative of the Council and with the support of UN Women. The Council conducted an analysis of Georgian legislation in terms of compliance with the Convention. The Interagency Council also took steps to confirm the appropriateness of signing this Convention by the relevant Ministries. The Council adopted a decision on signing the Convention and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia made a relevant statement at the fifty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which took place in New York in 2013.
According to the legislative amendments, the scope of the norms related to violence is expanding. It involves not only domestic violence, but also violence against women in general.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, approval of package of legislative amendments has failed and therefore Georgia has not yet ratified the Istanbul Convention.
In addition to the issue of violence against women, the Istanbul Convention regulates the issues related to the protection of LGBT people, women with disabilities and ethnic and religious minorities.