On July 17, 2024, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) published the Research Report “State Response to Gender-Based Violence in Georgia Legislation and Practice Analysis”.
The research examines the response system to gender-based violence in Georgia and the obstacles faced by victims. The purpose of the research is to uncover the challenges in preventing gender-based violence, responding to incidents, legal proceedings, punishing perpetrators, and supporting victims.
The research analyzes national legislature and international standards, relevant reports, court decisions, public information received from the state institutions and results of interviews with people who have experienced gender-based violence.
As a result of the research, it was revealed that in certain cases Georgian legislature is still incompatible with Istanbul Convection standards. For example, legal definition of rape is still not based on the component of consent.
Creating statistics without analytical parts, as well as challenges associated with creating and monitoring evidence-based policies remain problematic.
The low referral of victims of violence to formal institutions remains a challenge, primarily due to entrenched sexist attitudes in society, insufficient awareness of available support services, and a lack of trust in formal institutions. Lack of coordination between state bodies regarding prevention and combatting violence is problematic.
Secondary victimization during investigation and during forensic examination remains a challenge. The victim support services fail to meet the existing demand, to respond to specific needs of vulnerable groups and to empower victims to continue living independently.
The state representatives and individuals holding political office often incite gender-based discrimination by hate speech and discriminatory legislative initiatives.
Despite serious systemic problems, the authorities are actively trying to shrink civil space including by the Law on transparency of foreign influence. This will substantially worsen accessibility to legal aid, to important support services for victims and, contrary to Istanbul Convention standards, will make it impossible for the civil society to participate in the process of creating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating policies regarding prevention and combatting of gender-based violence.
The report was funded by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the U.S. Department of State (INL). The views expressed in this report are the sole responsibility of the GYLA and do not necessarily reflect the views of INL and US Government.