Council of Europe Office in Georgia and the Governmental Administration hosted on 13 February a conference to present the recommendations provided to Georgia by GREVIO, the independent expert body which monitors the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), as well as by the Committee of the Parties to the Istanbul Convention. At the event, representatives of non-governmental organisations and academia together with the State agencies and Maria-Andriani Kostopoulou, GREVIO member and second vice-president of GREVIO, discussed the steps to take to implement the 16 recommendations approved by the Committee of the Parties to the Convention in December 2022. The recommendations are the most pressing as indicated in the first GREVIO baseline report on Georgia published in November 2022. Georgia is to submit a report on the implementation of the recommendations to the Committee of the Parties by the end of 2025.
In order to implement the National Human Rights Strategy for the years of 2022-2030, the Government of Georgia started working on the development of the new National Human Rights Action Plan. Members of the state agencies listed under the Government Decree N143 of March 2, 2022, representatives of international/donor organizations, as well as respresentatives of more than 80 NGOs attended the meeting, among Women Fund “Sukhumi”.
At the end of the meeting, the importance of the involvement of international and local non-governmental organizations in the drafting process of the National Human Rights Action Plan was once again underlined and the timeframe for their feedback on the first draft of the action plan was discussed. However, during the discussion, the representatives of local non-governmental organizations drew attention to the main challenge of cooperation on the part of state agencies, which implies not taking into account the recommendations offered by civil societies in the state policy. Of course, it makes each of us lose the motivation to work together.
Our representative - Linda Chikhladze participated in the info-sharing meeting of the Secretariat of the Sustainable Development Goals Council.
The non-governmental organizations participating in the meeting received information regarding the mechanisms for promoting the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Among them, the activities and structure of the Sustainable Development Goals Council, the four thematic working groups included in it, and the opportunities and importance of being involved in them. Linda Chikhladze shared the best practices of the Women Fund “Sukhumi” work with them.
The addressee of these messages is Sophia Tsirghvava, an employee of the Women Fund "Sukhumi", who works with Ukrainians. Words of gratitude are written in the common chat. In this chat, Sophia gives them all the information they need (for example, about a vacancy, or about UNICEF assistance for children)...
The assistance of our organization is very important for every person who has been brought to Georgia by a disaster.
Our support is:
Assistance with food and hygiene products - in January, 45 families received such packages.
Utility costs – were paid for 9 families.
Housing rent – 13 families received assistance.
Teachers, parents, members of the Gender Equality Council took part in the information meetings held in the schools of Tkibuli and Senaki municipalities.
The topic of conversation was the importance of society's participation in elimination of the problem of violence against women. In this process, a certain role is assigned to the website of the Women Fund “Sukhumi” - "Digital Resource Center of Services for Violence Victims" https://sosfsokhumi.ge/Here you can find a lot of information that will help to determine ways of violence prevention or ways to respond to it. Participants noted how important the activity of each member of society is for problem solution.
The project is implemented with the support the Equality Fund (Canada)
A little boy came with his mother. Children are often brought here, so there are a lot of toys in the room of the psychologist Manana Gotsiridze. The bunny also sat calmly on the shelf. Ukrainian boy suddenly shouted: bunny! Then he asked the psychologist: “can I hold him”? “Oh sure”. He hugged and caressed ... Manana Gotsiridze understood why and told him, if you want, I will give it to you. Mother fell into an awkward situation and began to “justify” – “he had such bunny at home, and he loved him very much”...
The boy left happy.
Everyone is satisfied after the meeting with the psychologist of the Women Fund "Sukhumi". Someone has fewer problems and the rehabilitation process is completed faster, someone needs more visits.
Meetings with Ukrainian refugees are one of the important areas in the work of Manana Gotsiridze. In January, she met 6 families - 17 people. An initial consultation was carried out, an anamnesis was collected and everyone was invited to continue free psychotherapy. They were also given the necessary products, household chemicals, warm clothes.
The problem of violence against women and the importance of public participation in its elimination - meetings on this topic were held in Vani and Kobuleti. The meeting in the public school of the village Mtisdziri (Vani municipality) was attended by teachers and upper graders and in the kindergarten No 2 of Kobuleti, the coordinator of the children's rights department of the City Hall and the chairman of the Gender Equality Council, together with the staff.
The project is implemented with the support the Equality Fund (Canada)
Teachers, members of the Gender Equality Council, City Hall staff and representatives of the social agency participated in information meetings at the City Hall of Khobi municipality. An information meeting was also held at the public School No 3 - Samtredia and was attended by teachers and school administration.
During the meetings, it was noted that, envisaging the importance of the problem, it is important for everyone to take part in the campaign of 16 Active Days against Gender-based Violence.
The participants got acquainted with the digital resource center for violence victims https://sosfsokhumi.ge/, which aroused great interest. It was noted that it is important to disseminate information about this page so that both victims and abusers can receive information about mechanisms of protection and response. All this will contribute to the prevention of violence.
The project is implemented with the support the Equality Fund (Canada)
Two more information meetings were held in December with the support of the Equality Fund (Canada).
The first meeting was held in the conference hall of Chokhatauri City Council (participants: kindergarten teachers and directors), the second meeting was held in the school of the village Etseri - Terjola municipality (participants: high school students and teachers).
During the meeting they talked about the 16-day campaign against gender-based violence and the importance of community involvement in the process of eliminating violence. Everyone noted that active participation is needed in order to reveal the facts in time and then react to them.
The participants got interested in the web page of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" - https://sosfsokhumi.ge/, which contains comprehensive information about the mechanisms of response and victims’ support.
The project is implemented with the support the Equality Fund (Canada)
