The News in Brief
Thursday, December 1
President Re-Nominates Head of Adjara’s Local Government
President Giorgi Margvelashvili re-nominated Zurab Pataridze as the head of the local government of the Adjara Autonomous Republic. Pataridze has served in this post since July.
Pataridze and his government should win the confidence vote of the newly elected Supreme Council of Adjara, which held its inaugural session on November 28.
“It is a huge challenge and responsibility for us, but I am sure that our team will do our utmost to justify this confidence,” Pataridze said on November 29.
Before Pataridze’s nomination, President Margvelashvili held consultations with GDDG and UNM lawmakers from the Supreme Council of Adjara. He re-nominated Pataridze through the agreement with the Georgian government. (Civil.ge)
13 women killed in domestic violence so far in 2016
New grim figures from Georgia’s ombudsman show that 13 women have been killed in family violence during the first ten months of 2016.
In some cases, the police were alerted in advance, but did not intervene.
Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili spoke Friday about the challenges and problems when it comes to violence against women.
There have been more cases of violence this year. More efforts are needed to prevent the violence and provide an effective response in each case.
“The results of our research show that in most of the cases, law enforcement bodies did not evaluate the risk that the crime may be repeated and prepare an individual action plan to provide security for each victim.”
Nanuashvili called on the government and parliament to rapidly ratify the Council of Europe’s Convention about violence against women and family violence. He also called on the Justice Ministry and parliament to define femicide as a separate crime in the Criminal Code. Femicide is when a woman is murdered because of her gender.
There is still no report about women’s rights in 2016, but in June, the ombudsman published a report about women’s rights and gender equality, which described the situation in 2015. It showed a staggering number of 2,726 cases of family violence involving 5,106 people.
The emergency service 112 received 15,910 calls about family violence in 2015, compared to 9,260 calls the year before. According to the report, 93% of abusers were men.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, there were 28 cases of murder and murder attempts of women in 2015. 16 of these were committed within a family context where the perpetrator was either a partner, ex-partner or a person rejected suitor. In 2014, there were 34 murders of women where the motivation was gender.
There were identified 80 cases of sexual violence in 2014, and 87 in 2015, including 20 cases of rape.
The ombudsman also highlighted the problem of early marriage. In 2015, there were registered 116 cases of minors being married. The same year, 408 people between the age of 13 and 17 dropped out of school because they got married. (DF watch)
It will probably take 6 to 8 months to resolve the issue of online casinos – Minister of Finance
“We will probably need some time to select the best model for online casinos but some steps in this direction will be taken shortly,” Finance Minister Dimitri Kumsishvili said on PalitraNews.
According to the Minister, active consultations are underway in relation to the issue.
"Online casinos are a social problem and we think it is especially important to protect young people. I had a lot of consultation with international consulting companies. We probably need some time to select the best model for online casinos, although steps in this direction will be necessarily taken.
“There are two important areas: to protect the rights of citizens and the online companies to pay taxes. In this regard, both fiscal and moral aspects are very important. Perhaps it will take from 6 to 8 months to offer the best model to the business, but we will definitely move in this direction,” said Kumsishvili. (IPN)
President Giorgi Margvelashvili re-nominated Zurab Pataridze as the head of the local government of the Adjara Autonomous Republic. Pataridze has served in this post since July.
Pataridze and his government should win the confidence vote of the newly elected Supreme Council of Adjara, which held its inaugural session on November 28.
“It is a huge challenge and responsibility for us, but I am sure that our team will do our utmost to justify this confidence,” Pataridze said on November 29.
Before Pataridze’s nomination, President Margvelashvili held consultations with GDDG and UNM lawmakers from the Supreme Council of Adjara. He re-nominated Pataridze through the agreement with the Georgian government. (Civil.ge)
13 women killed in domestic violence so far in 2016
New grim figures from Georgia’s ombudsman show that 13 women have been killed in family violence during the first ten months of 2016.
In some cases, the police were alerted in advance, but did not intervene.
Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili spoke Friday about the challenges and problems when it comes to violence against women.
There have been more cases of violence this year. More efforts are needed to prevent the violence and provide an effective response in each case.
“The results of our research show that in most of the cases, law enforcement bodies did not evaluate the risk that the crime may be repeated and prepare an individual action plan to provide security for each victim.”
Nanuashvili called on the government and parliament to rapidly ratify the Council of Europe’s Convention about violence against women and family violence. He also called on the Justice Ministry and parliament to define femicide as a separate crime in the Criminal Code. Femicide is when a woman is murdered because of her gender.
There is still no report about women’s rights in 2016, but in June, the ombudsman published a report about women’s rights and gender equality, which described the situation in 2015. It showed a staggering number of 2,726 cases of family violence involving 5,106 people.
The emergency service 112 received 15,910 calls about family violence in 2015, compared to 9,260 calls the year before. According to the report, 93% of abusers were men.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, there were 28 cases of murder and murder attempts of women in 2015. 16 of these were committed within a family context where the perpetrator was either a partner, ex-partner or a person rejected suitor. In 2014, there were 34 murders of women where the motivation was gender.
There were identified 80 cases of sexual violence in 2014, and 87 in 2015, including 20 cases of rape.
The ombudsman also highlighted the problem of early marriage. In 2015, there were registered 116 cases of minors being married. The same year, 408 people between the age of 13 and 17 dropped out of school because they got married. (DF watch)
It will probably take 6 to 8 months to resolve the issue of online casinos – Minister of Finance
“We will probably need some time to select the best model for online casinos but some steps in this direction will be taken shortly,” Finance Minister Dimitri Kumsishvili said on PalitraNews.
According to the Minister, active consultations are underway in relation to the issue.
"Online casinos are a social problem and we think it is especially important to protect young people. I had a lot of consultation with international consulting companies. We probably need some time to select the best model for online casinos, although steps in this direction will be necessarily taken.
“There are two important areas: to protect the rights of citizens and the online companies to pay taxes. In this regard, both fiscal and moral aspects are very important. Perhaps it will take from 6 to 8 months to offer the best model to the business, but we will definitely move in this direction,” said Kumsishvili. (IPN)