UN Women Supporting Dialogue between Women’s NGOs and State Security Agencies

Government officials met in Tbilisi with representatives of women’s organizations to exchange information on recent developments concerning human rights and the security situation adjacent to the lines of control with the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The meeting was organized by the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality (OSMRCE) with the technical support from UN Women and brought together high-ranking representatives of State Security agencies, EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) and local civil society organizations. The meeting focused on the outcomes of the latest Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) meetings that recently took place in Ergneti and Gali. Discussion centered around a number of topics, including the everyday security of the population living in villages adjacent to the control lines; Issues such as access to education in native languages, freedom and security of movement, detention conditions and treatment, and problems with personal documentation of the population in Gali dominated among issues raised by women’s NGOs during the information-sharing meeting.

Within the framework of the meeting, women and their organizations called upon the IPRM participants for a more effective response to their humanitarian needs. Among other topics, civil society organizations highlighted the immediate need to enable Easter pilgrimage to religious sites and graveyards across the control lines considering the upcoming Easter holidays. Civil society organizations further called for inclusion of broader range of state actors in the meeting format, such as the Ministry of Education and Science and Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons form the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees to enable more targeted discussions on issues pertaining to education, housing etc.

OSMRCE with the technical support from UN Women plans to continue supporting quarterly information sharing meetings with women’s organizations throughout 2017 in line with commitments under the 2016-2017 National Action Plan of Georgia on Women, Peace and Security.