Supreme Court of Georgia

A Working Meeting On Istanbul Convention

Published: 12/05/2018

On November 30, 2018 with the support of the Council of Europe a working meeting was held at hotel “Courtyard Marriott” concerning  summarization of activities on implementation of Istanbul Convention in Georgia”. The meeting was opened by Christian Urse, head of COE office in Georgia providing positive feedback of the activities undertaken in this direction.

The meeting involved specialized prosecutors and judges of violence against women and domestic violence. The aim of the meeting was to discuss the current challenges faced by legal professionals in Georgia while implementing the Istanbul Convention in practice.

Ms. Mzia Todua, the Acting Chairperson of the Supreme Court of Georgia, highlighted the importance of ratification of the Convention and its harmonization with national legislation. She talked about the publications and research conducted by the Center for Human Rights of the Supreme Court of Georgia that include issues of domestic violence and violence against women.

Special attention was paid to the importance of joint working meetings of judges and prosecutors, sharing the necessary opinions for the formation of unified court practice, setting out general directions, which will significantly increase effective fighting against women`s and domestic violence. “Involvement in the working meetings of this type is essential for us and for development of Georgian judiciary for proper implementation of European standards and regulations”-stated Ms.Todua.

The participants were presented with tools available under the Istanbul Convention to prevent and combat violence against women as well as with the online CoE’s HELP course on Violence against Women and Domestic Violence as a means to increase their influence and potential of action.

The Istanbul Convention which was ratified by Georgia in 2017 asks governments to take a comprehensive set of measures to tackle all forms of violence against women and domestic violence. This includes preventing violence from occurring, helping victims, and ensuring that perpetrators are brought to justice. The convention also requires criminalising and legally sanctioning different forms of violence against women, for example: domestic violence, stalking, sexual harassment and psychological violence.