Project Summary Report "Providing Access to Protection for the Victims of Domestic and Gender-based Violence and Strengthening Protection Mechanisms"

On April 15, 2019, the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA) presented the final report of a project - Providing Access to Protection for the Victims of Domestic and Gender-based Violence and Strengthening Protection Mechanisms.

The main goal of the project was providing access to the services for victims of domestic and gender-based violence.

With the engagement of GYLA and other partner organizations up to 7000 victims were provided legal aid, up to 2500 victims underwent a psycho-social rehabilitation, and 71 beneficiaries got a vocational education. Within the framework of the project, the behavior correction program of abuser was developed, which was implemented in the National Probation Agency and two penitentiary facilities. The pilot 6-month program was successfully implemented.

In addition to the above mentioned, during implementation of the project five different pieces of research have been prepared:

- "Risk factors that cause violent behavior";

- "Standards for investigation of gender-based crimes";

- "Main aspects of violence against girls and women with disabilities";

- "Violence against a child";

- "The rights and legal status of LGBT and sex worker women in Georgia".

Studies have shown that the following changes are needed:

- To bring a separate entry in the constitution concerning child rights;

- To revise the issue of strengthening  of criminal sanctions due to the frequent incidents of violence against a child;

- To improve the legislation concerning child pornography;

- It is necessary to adopt and develop the policy directed towards the elimination of stereotypes by the media;

- Retraining of teachers, the relevant staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, social workers and psychologists is needed to identify child victims of domestic violence and to respond  to the fact;

- It is important to investigate the nature of gender-based crimes, to create effective mechanisms for the protection of victims and to increase access to justice for women and girls;

Also, it should be noted that declaring the facts of domestic violence are still a problem for people with disabilities, since:

- Women and girls with disabilities are not able to address the police in time;

- Most people with disabilities have no information about their rights, including the obligations undertaken by the state  prescribed by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;

- The issue of rehabilitation of women and girls with disabilities is problematic. In fact, there are no rehabilitation centers tailored to the specific needs of people with disabilities, who will receive the victims of violence.

- State programs directed to the protection of persons with disabilities need to be improved and amended.

During the implementation of the project, the public awareness raising campaign #Talk was planned. The information campaign was opened at a large-scale music festival. The video clips were prepared within the framework of #Talk. Within the campaign, the photos were exhibited. Overall, the campaign information has reached more people than a million.

Photo project 

Tbilisi Open Air 

Tbilisi Open Air Musicians of the Festival's Calls Against Domestic Violence:

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3 

Conceptual video content:

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3 

The above-mentioned issues are an incomplete list of the problems identified during the implementation of the project. GYLA continues to work on these issues in the future.

The project was implemented with financial support of the European Union.