Categories
Journalistic Survey
Articles
Reportage
Analitic
Photo Reportage
Exclusive
Interview
Foreign Media about Georgia
Editorial
Position
Reader's opinion
Blog
Themes
Children's Rights
Women's Rights
Justice
Refugees/IDPs
Minorities
Media
Army
Health
Corruption
Elections
Education
Penitentiary
Religion
Others

NGOs Speak about Violence against Women by Police Officers

December 4, 2014
 
Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi 

On November 26, Georgian Harm Reduction Network and nongovernmental organization New Way organized round table in Kutaisi about the violence against women with HIV/AIDs and drug-addict women.

According to the 2014 data of the Scientific-Practical Center of HIV/AIDs and Clinic Immunology, there are 4 622 cases of HIV/AIDs infection in Georgia and 1 227 of the patients are women.

Experts say the increase into new cases is stable and there is no threat of epidemics.

“There is much work. Both quality and scope of prevention programs must be increased in order to minimize the new cases of infection. State engagement is urgently important for that purpose. The state must play key role in it and give us, NGOs, more freedom for operation,” Zaza Karchkhadze, Kutaisi office coordinator of the New Way, said.

Representatives of NGOs agree that state has significant and decisive role in this process. They said number of new cases will reduce if the state is more actively engaged in the process and increases funding.

“Active cooperation with state institutions is urgently important. Advocacy on funding the harm reduction programs must be conducted on central, regional and local levels,” the experts said.
Cases of violence against drug-addict women were also discussed during the meeting.

Advocacy Coordinator of the gender project of the Georgian Harm Reduction Network Professor Zurab Tatanashvili spoke about violence against drug-addict women by police officers.

“When we speak about the violence against drug-addict women by police officers, we mean all forms of violence – including physical, psychological and sexual harassment. The most frequently they use intimidation and blackmailing that is qualified as psychological violence. Police officers try to force drug-addict women to cooperate with them through violence in order to find other, larger groups of drug-addicts,” Zurab Tatanashvili told Human Rights Center.

Tatanashvili said campaign to break silence was launched in 16 states worldwide including Georgia; it aims to collect and public information about the problem. “Society must be aware about the situation, problems and scopes of the problems in Georgia,” Tatanashvili said.

Representatives of the NGOs participating in the round table planned future activities too. 

News