Åsa Regnér, UN Women Deputy Executive Director, and Alia El-Yassir, UN Women Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, make first official visit to Georgia

From 23 to 25 May, Åsa Regnér, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, and Alia El-Yassir, Director of the UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, paid their first official visit to Georgia. The purpose of their visit was to become acquainted with and deepen the long-term cooperation with the country’s legislative and executive branches across a variety of directions.

UN Women representatives met with the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili, and the Chairperson of the Gender Equality Council of the Parliament, Nino Tsilosani. The parties thereafter reaffirmed both existing and future areas of cooperation. Mr. Papuashvili moreover discussed the steps taken by Georgia towards gender equality and underlined the importance of the Gender Equality Concept that will be adopted in the near future, as well as the introduction of gender quotas and a gender impact assessment tool in Parliament. Ms. Regnér in turn expressed readiness to further support Georgia, noting that the country already has experience and offers concrete examples that are critical for future global discussions.

The visit continued with a meeting between UN Women representatives and the President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili. The purpose of the meeting was to support UN Women in implementing policies on the gender equality and on women’s empowerment principles, and to highlight the President’s contribution in this regard. “I met with Åsa Regnér, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women – the representative of an organization that works on gender-based violence issues around the world,” the Georgian president wrote on her official Twitter page after the meeting. “What we need is a new approach on domestic violence, a new strategy that will eliminate femicide once and for all.”

During the visit, Ms. Regnér and Ms. El-Yassir, together with the local leadership of UN Women, also met with the Head of the Administration of the Government of Georgia, Revaz Javelidze. The consultation was also attended by Niko Tatulashvili, Advisor to the Prime Minister of Georgia on Human Rights and the Head of the Inter-Agency Commission on Gender Equality, Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, as well as Maka Peradze, the Head of the Human Rights Secretariat.

The parties discussed areas of cooperation between UN Women and the Government of Georgia, and the importance of supporting ongoing projects. These talks focused on such issues as the integration of a gender perspective in the good governance reform process, the sustainable and effective functioning of the national institutional mechanisms for women’s empowerment and gender equality, and the process of developing the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights. The representatives of the Government of Georgia underlined the important role of UN Women in the process of developing the National Action Plan for the Implementation of the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security, as well as the National Action Plan on Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence and the Measures to be Implemented for the Protection of Victims (Survivors).

Ms. Regnér and Ms. El-Yassir’s official visit to Georgia concluded on 25 May 2022.