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This item is originally posted in Chaikhana Media. We reproduce an edited version under a collaboration agreement.
One in seven women in Georgia has experienced domestic violence in her lifetime, according to a report by UN Women, published in 2018. Although activists say the country is making progress in tackling the problem, a deadly mix of cultural taboos and limited resources complicates reform. More recently, the debate on domestic violence was reignited when a woman was brutally murdered by her husband in November 2022.
Addressing domestic abuse has been challenging in part because Georgian police traditionally view it as a family issue, not a legal matter. Baia Pataraia, a human rights lawyer who contributed to the first legal reform to criminalize domestic violence in Georgia, points out that for the first two years, neither the police nor the courts were interested in investigating or prosecuting cases.
But that changed in 2014 when it was produced a rise in the number of women killed by their abusers. The murders shocked the system. “It was like a new wave of feminism,” recalls Pataraia, director of the women’s organization Sapari.
“After that, we were already able to adopt different rules and laws that were necessary for an effective investigation and, at the moment, we have quite well-developed legislation.”
As the director of a shelter for battered women and their children in the capital Tbilisi, Gvantsa Bakradze has seen firsthand the impact of Georgia’s efforts to tackle domestic violence. Gvantsa runs the Santa Bárbara Maternal and Child Care Center, one of the country’s private shelters for women. “A lot has changed, including in terms of legislation,” she says, adding that she is optimistic about the future because of the improvements that have highlighted the importance of dealing with domestic violence: there is even a change in how women seeking refuge are seen themselves and their situation’.
«I see that women are very strong. They come, they face a lot of problems and, in most cases, they get by. They get to build their lives. I don’t think this process is in any way reversed,” says Bakradze. The shelter, run by the Catholic charity Caritas, is calm: stuffed animals in the living room, the smell of home cooking wafting from the kitchen and women chatting and caring for their babies together. For now they are safe. «Access to shelters is an important part of the fight against domestic abuse: women victims of domestic violence are often economically dependent on their abusers and lack the means to find new housing. However, the availability of shelters varies in different regions of Georgia, as funding is not available equally.”
The Georgian state funds five shelters across the country. It also runs five crisis centers, where women can live until they find somewhere else to stay. In addition, there is a state emergency number to provide information and help to victims of violence. The Georgia State Assistance Agency manages all these services, although its director, Meri Maghlaperidze, points out that there are still “gaps” in the network of programs and assistance. For example, most women prefer to go to Tbilisi because there are more possibilities to find work in the capital, and having a salary is essential to become financially independent from their abusers.
Currently, the State offers women the chance to learn a new skill, such as cooking or cutting hair, through apprenticeships, which can enable them to enter a new profession. But these programs are still not giving them the help they need. “They are more interested in getting a job right away, not learning, because they want to earn an income as soon as possible,” Maghlaperidze says.
But he believes that one of the biggest obstacles has already been overcome. “When we first passed the domestic violence law in 2006, people laughed because they thought it was just a family matter.”
Officially, statistics indicate that the number of people prosecuted for domestic violence has been increasing. Guram Imnadze, director of the democracy and justice program at the Center for Social Justice, argues that the state’s approach is “fragmented and ineffective.” He points out that in 2020, of the 1,287 people convicted of domestic violence, only 379 were sentenced to prison terms. Anna Arganashvili, a human rights lawyer with the NGO Partnership for Human Rights, says that significant problems remain in law enforcement, especially in the prosecution of accused abusers. For example, a recent domestic abuse case involving Georgian tennis star Nikoloz Basilashvili and his ex-wife Neka Dorokashvili led to a public smear campaign against Dorokashvili. Basilashvili was acquitted by the Tbilisi city court in October after two years of trial. Arganashvili, who works in the organization that defended Dorokashvili, stated:
The entire society thinks that he couldn’t be a perpetrator because he’s famous. We’re receiving a lot of threats because, the ex-wife for them is a woman who shouldn’t have claimed anything because he is a world champion, and you must be quiet and allow him to make Georgia famous.
… On the paper we’re progressing, but in reality, I don’t see much progress.
The whole society thinks that he can’t be a bully because he’s famous. We are getting a lot of threats because for them the ex-wife should not have claimed anything since he is a world champion and she has to shut up and let him make Georgia famous.
… On paper, we are making progress, but in reality, I don’t see much progress.
Over the years, Arganashvili has begun to educate young people about domestic violence and their rights, as “the mere existence of laws is no solution.” To date, she has created a television program for children in order to inform them of their rights and make the law understandable. She is convinced that if girls feel safe as women, change will happen.
Baia Pataraia, a lawyer and activist, notes that implementation remains “complicated.”
“We have made some progress, we now have better legislation, although its implementation is still difficult. The justice system is not gender-sensitive or victim-oriented,” she says, adding that society as a whole continues to favor abusers over victims and men over women. “Especially if a man has power and is famous, it’s still very difficult for a woman to defend the truth from her.”
In 2022, the Georgia prosecutor’s office reported of 16 cases of femicide in the first ten months. In a statement released on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Georgia Office of the Ombudsman he claimed: “Regardless of legislative or institutional changes, violence against women and domestic violence in Georgia remain a major challenge.” That same day, dozens of women they went out into the street to protest the relentless violence against women.