Over the years, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association has been working on issues of domestic violence. Currently GYLA is implementing the project Raising Public Awareness on Protection of Women’s Rights, aimed at developing special skills for victims of domestic violence and sharing applicable international practice. The project is implemented in partnership with the National Network of Protection from Violence and Czech NGO ARDA. The project has been funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czech Republic.
GYLA’s work on domestic violence-related issues has several different strands and is carried out with the involvement of GYLA’s offices in Tbilisi and in the regions.
1. Protection of victims of domestic violence
GYLA offers free legal consultation to victims of domestic violence and representation before court.
In 2010-2011 GYLA rendered total of 1225 in-person and 596 telephone consultations.
2. Raising public awareness
In 2010-2011, total of 108 meetings and 3 roundtables with public was held to provide information about domestic violence-related issues. We also held 12 public lectures for school teachers in Shida Kartli on issues of domestic violence.
We held 13 training courses for IDPs on issues of domestic violence and human trafficking.
A competition of paintings and short stories entitled No to Domestic Violence! was held in April 2011. Winners of the competition were awarded by GYLA’s chairperson Tamar Chugoshvili and US Ambassador to Georgia John Bass. The winning script was used to produce a play shown at 10 IDP settlements. Winning paintings were used to print post cards and bookmarks distributed in the regions and in Tbilisi.
3. Trainings and seminars
Total of 7 trainings were held for patrol police officers in Tbilisi and in the regions.
Similar trainings will be held for lawyers and employees of the office of the prosecutor
A two-day seminar on domestic violence will be held for students in Tbilisi and in the regions.
