IMPLEMENTING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE POLICY IN GEORGIA: IMPEDIMENTS AND THEIR CAUSES NINO JAVAKHISHVILI, LIA TSULADZE Ilia State University &Tbilisi State University

The current paper  The first attempt to show the role of the governmental and non-governmental organizations in implementing anti domestic violence policy in Georgia (The law (2006) and the National Acton Plan (NAP) ( ) and the drawbacks on its way.  The limited number of studies carried out so far has been focused on the data about prevalence of domestic violence cases in the country.

The contents of the presentation  the law is not as much a success as it was considered and does not work as implied in the international standards.  Two possible reasons:  Neither the broad society, nor the state officials have had egalitarian attitudes to such issues as gender, minorities, etc.  There is not enough cooperation between the state and non-governmental organizations dealing with the problem and there is a lack of cooperation within each of these.

Why these reasons? International Documents  Understanding the gender inequality as the cause of domestic violence  The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (2011)

International Experience  The victims of domestic violence encounter lack of understanding and support from police, medical personnel, social workers, who, instead of helping them, advise to stay home and tolerate (Cann, et. al. 2001; Johnson, 2007; Harne, Radford, 2010).  The officials sometimes do not register cases as such because they do not regard them a serious thing.

Georgia’s case  “….. stereotypes prevailing in the society lead to problems in applying to law-enforcement mechanisms. Victims/survivors of violence, the majority of whom are women fear the perpetrator, being shunned by society and exposure of the family secrets, which is indicated by the less number of applications to court compared with the police applications to affirm the issuing of preventive warrants. The above-mentioned fact reveals that legal measures for the protection of victims are not sufficient and do not adequately correspond with the objective reality “(p. 7).  The UN Universal Periodic Review. Prepared by Women’s Right’s NGOs (2010. July, 12). Available at:

United efforts – international documents  Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, 2011  Duluth model  Framework for Model Legislation on Domestic Violence developed by the ESC in 1996

United efforts - Georgia  Neither the anti-domestic violence law of Georgia, nor the National Action Plan contains any reference to gender equality issues.  “development and support of joint programs with other interested institutions” (Law of Georgia on the Prevention of Domestic Violence, Protection of and Assistance to Victims of Domestic Violence, 2006, p.4).

Method  In-depth interviews with the representatives of the state organizations and NGOs working in the sphere of gender equality and women issues in Georgia  35 organizations: 30 NGOs and 5 state agencies.  One NGO refused to participate and 1 state organization – Ministry of Healthcare and Welfare was not reached.  In total, 46 semi-structured interviews were carried out, with two representatives being interviewed in the large-size organizations.

Drawbacks in the Implementation – The orders  and data of the monitoring of using legal protection mechanisms - the protective mechanisms were rarely applied in practice and none of the criminal cases were pursued against the offenders (Aladashvili, Chikhladze, 2007; 2008; 2009 ).  “This is a so called preventive law. I mean that the function of the orders is to take apart a perpetrator and a victim. The law will be successful if there are many such orders issued. As far as I know, very few orders have been issued” (NGO, central).

Drawbacks in the implementation - protection of victims  “I will bring a concrete example…. The woman in Samtskhe-Javakheti region called the police, but afterwards she told us she would never do it again. Why? - We Asked… 100 GEL was a penalty for my husband, which I had to pay… and then, the husband came back in two days, so what did I gain? What mechanism is there to protect me?.... So, I think the syndrome of fear should be there for a perpetrator, the law should be more severe” (NGO, central).

Drawbacks in the implementation - protection of victims  the restrictive order often stayed on paper and the police didn’t really have any effective means to protect the victims other than to stay at their houses until the situation got less tense (from a focus-group interview with the policemen in Tbilisi) (Chitashvili, et. al, 2010, p ).

Drawbacks in the implementation - outreach  “many women do not know it exists”, even one of the respondents  the state should have a special informational policy,  media should improve the coverage both: in scope and in quality;

Drawbacks in the implementation – outreach  While 27 organizations held informational awareness campaigns, the society still lacks the awareness.  24 organizations carry out trainings:  20 organizations train police, 10 train medical staff, 11 train judges and lawyers, 3 train the staff of the penitential system.

Drawbacks in the implementation - quality  Trainings for police have been carried out on a regular basis and considered as successful; trainings for judges and social workers have taken place less frequently; as for the rest, trainings, if any, have been sporadic.  The quality - the trainers lack gender awareness, necessary experience and appropriate skills to touch this sensitive issue.

Attitudes - Views on gender equality  Both a husband and a wife should be raising their children together, but a wife should do so more; both a husband and a wife should be breadwinners in a family, although men would be better at; a woman can have sexual relations with a man before marriage, but she would better not; divorce is a way out of violence in a family, although only in severe cases and in order to protect children; a husband should not control his wife, but he might; obedience is not a thing to demand from a wife, but it should be done.

Views on gender equality  “One should not restrict a woman as it was before – do not open a door and do not look out of a window – but, it is not right to run back and forth to show others how up-to-date one is ” (NGO, central).  “We should respect free will, wishes of people but, at the same time, traditions tell us other things and we would rather keep the traditions” (NGO, central).

Views on divorce  women often associate divorce with “disaster” and “end of the world” ( from focus group interviews with women. National Research on Domestic Violence against Women in Georgia, 2010 ).  a very negative event, a tragedy that is caused by unbearable conditions.

Views on causes of domestic violence  The hard economic conditions in the country, men lost their jobs, hence they lost the breadwinner function and started to drink.  Gender inequality. Men being dominant show their power through exercising control over their wives.  “The style of raising children contains violence; many such things are present in traditions, so traditions cause gender inequality, which, in turn, is one of the most serious reasons for domestic violence”(NGO, central).

Views on domestic violence as a crime and social problem  Most of our respondents think that domestic violence should be qualified as a crime and a social problem. However, only few would even mention punishing the offender, referring to the law and agreeing to intervention by those responsible for its realization.

Views on interventions  “The issue should not go outside; it would rather be solved within the family” (NGO, regional).  “Overreaction is not the right thing to do, everybody should look after their own rights” (NGO, central).  “Why, this is not the issue for relatives and those… it should be resolved by two persons” (NGO, central).

Views on interventions  “I might have called the police, but it is difficult to say. Despite having worked on these issues since 2000………..I am a child of this society, you know” (state agency).  “I can not justify punishment of anybody. A person should understand the meaning of his/her own behavior and make a decision of what to do accordingly” (NGO, central).

Cooperation  The coordination of actions against domestic violence, as well as the monitoring of these is a task of the Interagency Council to combat domestic violence.  The council should meet at least twice a year, while the last meeting was held in August 2009; it does not have a website and has not produced any document.  it was important to create it in December 2008 “to attract attention to the problem and to mobilize”, while there is no need for it now; the State Fund is the main actor and the Council “is a formality”.

Cooperation – lack of strategy  “There should be some space for cooperation…..I do not mean victims, in case of victims, they [these organizations] address each other, cooperate, but strategically they do not…..the state fund could overtake this function” (NGO, central).  “There might be some state strategy, but I am not familiar with it” (NGO, regional).  “Yes, the interagency Council helps us……it would have been good to have an organization, responsible for coordination, all the information should be accumulated at this place and it will coordinate us all” (NGO, regional).

Cooperation - problems  “Some NGOs are very close to the government [agencies]. They have the reputation of being close to the state agencies. There are also NGOs that consider themselves to be far-away from state agencies and event opponents to the NGOs that are close to state agencies” (Central NGO representative).  “The same kinds of organizations cooperate closely with the state agencies; I can name three of them” (Regional NGO representative).

Cooperation versus Competition  Competition within the sector:  “…but there are some organizations that do not cooperate….for some unclear reasons there is a competition within the sector…. there is no need for competition, there is enough space for everybody, and we could have done much more with united forces. …. This is strange, but this organization does not call that one, and that one does not inform this one and suddenly this one was not informed….there are problems in the exchange of information” (NGO, central).  “We compete for grants, so some organizations conceal information” (NGO, regional).

Cooperation versus Competition  No competition within the state sector.  No competition between the state and non- governmental organizations either.  “The NGOs and donors help us a lot; they help us in organizational issues, also in developing the position to the problem…” (state agency)  “State agencies have their own resources to realize activities, but in order to have a high quality of these activities we cooperate with NGOs” (state agency).

Cooperation: Government and NGOs  NGOs - to have more joint meetings, establish more task forces.  the government does not see NGO expertise and experience, there is a lack of information exchange bureaucracy hinders cooperation:  “We [NGOs] have been working on this issue even before they started to think about it…so why to invent a bicycle again? Use our expertise…let us have more joint projects, joint activities, to which we could contribute a lot” (NGO, central).

Cooperation within and between there is more cooperation within the sectors than between the sectors. All respondents express their wish to cooperate with any other organization, however, some organizations have certain preconditions: for the Ministry of Internal Affairs the interests of others should coincide with its own, and its criteria should be met, NGOs should be qualified, have enough experience, share the views and approaches of the state. The NGOs wish to have some united space to exchange information, expertise and ideas, for example, through internet, providing specific information about the projects launched or realized, or relevant researches. Also, NGOs want to have some coordinating body consisting of all sectors or persons responsible for cooperation with other organizations.

Cooperation within and between  The representatives of governmental organizations have been unable to bring concrete views of how the cooperation can be improved,  NGOs are more ready and willing to cooperate than the government agencies.  However, the State Fund stands alone as a state agency that does cooperate with both governmental and non-governmental organizations, is interested in cooperation and has its ideas about further cooperation.

Cooperation between  The state plays “the most important role…..although [domestic violence] is the problem of the whole society, it is the state’s responsibility and task to establish the attitudes of the society…the state does all these measures, to punish the perpetrators, to prevent...” (state agency).  “The NGO sector plays the most serious role here, with its shelters, preventing and awareness- raising…. we have a strategy and certain priorities” (NGO, central)

Conclusion  International agencies responsible for combating domestic violence call for countries to acknowledge structural gender inequality as one of the main causes of this problem and to carry out a coordinated community response in order to overcome it.

Conclusion  The attitudes of the Georgian society are quite traditional, predominantly perceiving family as a woman’s domain and work and the world outside as a man’s domain. Those, whose task and commitment are to combat domestic violence, share the widespread views on gender roles, hence the understanding of domestic violence and the ways to address the issue.  There is an insufficient understanding of each other’s roles by governmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as the lack of efforts to cooperate on strategic issues. Moreover, most of the organizations, especially the state ones, do not recognize the need for a full-fledged strategy.

 Thank you!  Questions?  Comments?