Legal mechanism for protecting victims of violence against women and domestic violence now updated through UN Women’s support
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UN Women actively cooperates with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia to improve and refine the legal mechanisms for the protection of victims of violence against women and domestic violence. Within the framework of this cooperation, the restraining order procedure and the risk assessment tool were updated, both of which are important mechanisms for protecting victims against repeated acts of violence against women and domestic violence.
The change to the VAW/DV risk assessment methodology, which came into effect on 1 May 2023, makes the risk assessment process even more victim-oriented. The updated structured questionnaire allows the authorized police officer to take effective measures to ensure the protection of the victim and to limit certain actions of the perpetrator. In addition, the standard for establishing electronic surveillance has also been changed, giving more victims the opportunity to use this effective mechanism of violence prevention. The consent of the victim is necessary for the implementation of electronic surveillance. The protocol drafted by the police on the implementation of electronic surveillance will be submitted to the court for approval within 24 hours.
“The goal of the change is to increase the effectiveness of the fight against violence against women and/or domestic violence and family crime and to create an even more effective mechanism of supervision over the abuser,” said the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, Aleksandre Darakhvelidze.
UN Women actively participated in the process of drafting these changes: with its support, the experts of the non-governmental organization Global Rights for Women evaluated the mechanism for assessing the risk of violence recurrence according to international standards; workshops were held with the police divisions as well as non-governmental organizations and representatives of the Public Defender’s Office; and changes were made according to the recommendations developed as a result of this work.
In addition, to raise awareness about the electronic surveillance mechanism, a video clip was produced with the support of UN Women and European Union funding.
It is important to underline that the mechanisms of risk assessment and electronic surveillance were introduced by the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the support of UN Women and the European Union. The work carried out in terms of updating the legal mechanism for the protection of victims of violence against women and domestic violence was part of the project “Ending Violence against Women and Girls in Georgia”, which is implemented by UN Women and UNFPA with the support of the European Union.