GEORGIA: UNIFEM Executive Director Visits Georgia

UNIFEM Executive Director Inés Alberdi paid an official visit to Georgia on 10-12 May. The objective of the mission was to meet with government and civil society partners, review the progress and achievements of UNIFEM's programme in the country and discuss further work.

Ms. Alberdi's visit included a trip to the Shida Qartli region that was affected by the conflict in August 2008. In the municipality of Gori, she met with representatives from local government, civil society organizations and women's groups, to discuss the implementation of recommendations for the improvement of the situation of conflict-affected women and their families. The recommendations were elaborated by civil society in partnership with UNHCR, UNIFEM and the Council of Europe, and submitted to the regional authorities in November 2009.

Participants highlighted the successful partnership established between the local government, civil society, UN agencies and international organizations to solve the problems related to conflict and displacement. Ms. Alberdi acknowledged the efforts of local government to address the needs of displaced and conflict-affected people, and expressed hope that UNIFEM's project, “Women for Equality, Peace and Development in Georgia” (WEPD), would serve to improve the situation of women and their families in the region. The project is supported by the Government of Norway and will run for three years.

After the meeting in Gori, Ms. Alberdi visited the Karaleti settlement for internally displaced persons, where she met with conflict-affected women and spoke with them about living conditions in the settlement, employment and economic opportunities, children's education, health and social security issues.

In the capital Tbilisi, the Executive Director attended a meeting of the Interagency Council on Measures to Eliminate Domestic Violence and visited the construction site of the first state-supported shelter for victims. The shelter is built by the State Fund for Protection and Assistance of Victims of Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence, within the framework of UNIFEM's project, “SHiEld – Enhancing Prevention and Response to Domestic Violence in Georgia”, supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The project also aims to build another shelter in the Shida Qartli region and establish a nation-wide hotline for victims of domestic violence.

On the final day of her three-day visit, the Executive Director spoke at a press conference in Tbilisi, together with Rusudan Kervalishvili, the Vice-Speaker of the Georgian Parliament and Chair of the Gender Equality Parliamentary Council. In her closing remarks, Ms. Alberdi stated that Georgia was making progress in the development of gender-sensitive laws and policies. “Namely, we welcome the adoption of the domestic violence and human trafficking legislation in 2006, amendments to the domestic violence law in 2009, as well as the adoption of the Gender Equality Law in spring 2010.”

Ms. Kervalishvili commended the successful partnership between the Parliament of Georgia, UNIFEM and other UN agencies that contributed to the adoption of the Gender Equality Law. She stressed, however, that the adoption of the law was only the first step; the main challenge would lie in its implementation. There, civil society and international organizations would play an important role, along with the government.