National communication action plan on violence against women and domestic violence underway
Date:
UN Women and the European Union in partnership with the Inter-Agency Commission on Gender Equality, Violence against Women and Domestic Violence organized a workshop on drafting the National Communication Action Plan on Ending Violence against Women.
Thirty representative of the line ministries and state agencies engaged in the national response to violence against women and domestic violence took part in the drafting workshop. The National Communication Action Plan corresponds to the National Communication Strategy on Violence against Women and Domestic Violence prepared earlier by the Inter-Agency Commission with UN Women and EU support and is being developed as a supplement to the 2018-2020 National Action Plan on the Measures to be Implemented for Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence and Protection of Victims/Survivors .
The initiative aims at consolidating resources and improving joint planning and coordination to ensure that government’s awareness raising interventions on violence against women and domestic violence issues are evidence based, well-targeted and address root causes of violence, thus, contributing to shift in attitudes and perceptions towards the prevention of violence in Georgia. The prioritized activities of the plan are organized around two main objectives; those resulting in increased public awareness on the phenomena of violence against women and domestic violence and those resulting in increased public awareness on existing services and protection mechanisms (such as hotlines, crises centers, etc.).
The draft National Communication Action Plan will undergo extensive consultations with civil society and other development partners until its finalization and approval by the Inter-Agency Commission on Gender Equality, Violence against Women and Domestic Violence at the end of 2017.
The initiative responds directly to the commitments undertaken by the Government of Georgia under the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence ratified by Georgia as of May 2017, which amongst others, places the responsibility on the Government of Georgia to regularly promote and conduct awareness-raising campaigns and programmes to increase awareness and understanding among the general public on all forms of violence against women and girls, including domestic violence.