Interior Minister names tackling violence as priority

The Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, Giorgi Mghebrishvili, has stated that one of his major priorities in 2016 will be fighting against domestic violence and violence against women.

He also said that district inspectors will no longer have the right to carry out investigations or act entirely on their own initiative. The only remaining function for them would be “a family friend”.

As the Minister stressed, such a change served the aim of preventing domestic violence and increasing trust between law-enforcers and the general public.

Domestic violence still remains one of the most painful issues in Georgia, which requires a range of activities to be settled.

Various steps have been taken in this regard, but the problem still remains.

For certain Georgian men, women still appears as integral parts of the family whose domain and influence must be limited to the kitchen.

As many Georgian girls still start families at an early age, they generally fail to find jobs and have their own incomes due to a lack of education.

Thus, they become dependent on the men who might also be unemployed due to the hard economic situation in Georgia.

These frustrated men generally vent their anger on their women.

In the event of such incidents, some women fail to leave their husbands as they have no incomes of their own, and in some cases their families also do not want to readmit them to their households, due to outdated traditional values or a lack of income.

People also refrain from calling the police, as many believe that what happens “is family business only”. Due to this, many women have died in Georgia.

Gradually such attitudes are changing. There are more and more people who call the police in such situations, and a growing number of women are no longer so meek to take such abuse.

However, there is one major problem which remains. When a woman appeals to the police, they general warn the attacker, advising him to refrain from repeat incidents, as otherwise they might be imprisoned. The women, in many cases, still have to stay with the men if they have no alternative.

The state still fails to provide more guarantees for the women and at least offer them safe accommodation and help them to get education or find jobs.