Human Rights Center Commenced a New Project - Support to the Prevention of Violence against Women in Georgia

Human Rights Center commenced a new project Support to the Prevention of Violence against Women in Georgia, which was funded under the Democracy Commission Small Grant Program of the US Embassy in Georgia. 

The project is about one of the most urgent and painful problems of Georgia – violence against women, domestic violence and femicide.

In the frame of its free legal aid program, Human Rights Center often encounters cases when victims apply to law enforcement bodies for the protection from harassers but often it is difficult to prevent violence and sometimes even the facts of femicide. Citizens avoid informing the law enforcement bodies about the facts of violence and the victims also refrain from applying to police or court, as the defense mechanisms are not effective. 

Within framework of the new project, Human Rights Center will cooperate with the social workers of the shelters, police officers, community leaders, civil activists and victims, who will exchange information about the obstacles they encounter in their daily work. 

The purpose of the project is to analyze the miscarriages of the legal mechanisms for the prevention of domestic violence/violence against women/femicide; to work on the creation of more effective mechanisms with participation of key actors of the process; to promote inclusive dialogue about the problems of domestic violence, violence against women and femicide with participation of all state and non-state actors and propose legislative amendments and new mechanisms to the authority to make the law and the strategy more successful.

The project will last 8 months and will be implemented in three regions – Kakheti, Shida Kartli and Kvemo Kartli, where the level of domestic violence and femicide is higher than in other regions; and also in Tbilisi, where the level of domestic violence and femicide is the highest.

To identify the problems and to achieve the goals of the project, Human Rights Center will organize working meetings/discussions with key actors, including the victims. For the purpose of the media advocacy, online newspaper of Human Rights Center humanrights.ge will produce and publish articles about gender violence. In the final phase of the project a report will be produced, which will be presented at the closing conference. 

Human Rights Center