First steps taken to combat the abuse of women
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Wednesday, October 22
The Prime Time publication started a campaign called Stop Violence Against Women. Within the campaign, well known journalists and civil society representatives united and made their assessments.
According to the journalists, the serious rise in the number of women killed in recent months is one of the country’s biggest problems and they are ready to contribute in an effort to solve this problem.
“If the human rights-related topics are more actively covered by the media, the public will be more informed and ready to meet the challenge. We all know that the law has already been changed, but this is not enough, it must become stricter and strongly punish those committing violence against women,” stated journalist Inga Grigolia.
Head of the Parliament's Human Rights Committee Eka Beselia said that increasing the incidents of violence against women is disturbing. According to her, initially the reasons of the violation should be identified.
“First of all, we must find out why this is happening. We will fail to solve the problem without knowing the reasons. We must defeat this dangerous tendency immediately,” stated Beselia.
Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili also responded. According to Nanuashvili, the government should react more harshly to such incidents. The ombudsman criticized the police, saying that in many cases the patrol police ignore complaints of violence filed by women and are indifferent towards such calls.
“Georgia needs a strategy against the violence, and it needs it urgently,” said Nanuashvili.
Minister of Justice Thea Tsulukiani said that the government is working on the issue.
“We are now discussing what must be done, not only for prevention, but to stamp out this form of violence altogether. The law should become stricter in terms of domestic violence,” Tsulukiani said, adding that the amendments in the law will not be enough to adequately address the problem, as mentalities towards women also need to change.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) research, 70% of the population in Georgia is reluctant to accept the idea of police interfering with family affairs.
