Dialogue continues between Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism participants and IDP and conflict-affected women

A meeting between the Georgian participants of Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism and the representatives of women's civil society organizations, as well as IDP and conflict-affected women. Photo: The Office of the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality 

UN Women continues to support regular information-sharing meetings between the Georgian participants of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) and representatives of women’s civil society organizations, IDPs and conflict-affected women.

With the support of UN Women, the Office of the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality in cooperation with the State Security Service convened the meeting on 3 December in a hybrid format. The meeting was opened by the State Minister of Georgia for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, Ms. Tea Akhvlediani. She underlined the importance of increasing the role of women in peace and confidence-building processes, as well as provided a strategic review of reconciliation and engagement policies. Ms. Akhvlediani introduced the vision of the Office, which aims at supporting the active participation of conflict-affected women in the development of a new state strategy and action plan on the occupied territories.

IDP and conflict-affected women discussed the conditions in the villages adjacent to the administrative boundary line, the challenges related to humanitarian and free movement restrictions, and the specific needs of the local population during the pandemic. The women raised a number of issues related to human security and requested that the Georgian participants of the IPRM address and respond to them respectively.

Eliko Bendeliani, a head of the Center for Peace and Civic Development, emphasized the involvement of young people: “Their participation in such formats is very important. I think it will be valuable to involve more young people in such a dialogue and share their vision and priorities.”

At the end of the meeting, the participants of the IPRM reaffirmed their readiness to further cooperate with civil society representatives, and IDP and conflict-affected women and youth, as well as to address their needs.

The meeting was part of the UN Women project “Accelerating Implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Georgia”, generously funded by the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund of the British Government.