Ministry of Internal Affairs reports on progress achieved in curbing violence against women and domestic violence
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The Human Rights Protection Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, with the support of UN Women and the EU, brought together development partners and civil society organizations to report on the progress achieved by the department throughout 2018.
The presentation highlighted reforms undertaken by the Ministry’s Human Rights Protection Department, such as the introduction of the risk assessment methodology in the management of domestic violence cases, the introduction of the specialized investigators and patrol officers on cases related to violence against women and minors and the initiation of legislative changes that are projected to further strengthen the police response to violence against women and gender-motivated crimes. The Ministry further underlined the positive trend of increased statistics on reporting the cases of violence against women, as well as the increased number of restrictive orders issued by police officers in domestic abuse cases.
“We will have no success in fighting crime unless human rights protection standards are maintained and improved,” stated Mr. Giorgi Gakharia, Minister of Internal Affairs, expressing gratitude to the representatives of the department and civil sector and partner organizations for their contribution to combating domestic violence.
The Human Rights Protection Department was established in January 2018 with the core function to oversee effective response of the Ministry to crimes related to violence against women and domestic violence, crimes committed on the grounds of discrimination, hate crimes, trafficking and crimes committed by and/or towards minors. Prior to its establishment, NGOs together with UN Women had been calling on the Ministry to establish a specialized unit or department to improve law enforcement’s prevention of and response to violence against women and domestic violence cases for several years. The recommendation had also been voiced by the Public Defender of Georgia, as well as through the Universal Periodic Review mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council.
Since the creation of the Department, UN Women, with the generous support from the European Union and SIDA has been providing substantial technical assistance to the Ministry, including but not limited to providing technical assistance in conducting specialized trainings for patrol officers and investigators, introducing risk assessment methodology in management of intimate-partner violence cases, introducing electronic monitoring system to monitor the domestic violence offenders and development of special operating procedures on violence against women.