National Action Plans: Georgia commits to localization of the National Action Plan of Georgia on 1325 to local municipalities level, in addition to monitoring and analyzing achievements and challenges of the NAP and ensuring the dissemination of the findings with all stakeholders.
Georgia commits to integrating the goals and objectives of 1325 in the national policies and sectoral strategies of state institutions, including ensuring that the integration of IDPs and conflict-affected women’s needs,priorities and recommendations are reflected in the official negotiation processes and the development and implementation of relevant policies.
The Ministry of Defense has prepared a new Gender Equality Strategy and a two-year Action Plan to be adopted in the first quarter of 2020.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has three in-house trainers on gender equality and the WPS-agenda, who with the support of UN Women and the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations have conducted training for more than 60 staff members. In-house trainers aim at conducting cascade training for several MIA structural units, including the Department of Human Rights Protection and Investigation Quality Monitoring, the Border Police, the Patrol and Criminal Police, and the Special Tasks Department operating in the regions of Georgia.
The Ministry of Defense of Georgia as the lead institution on the UNSCR 1325 in the country takes continued efforts to integrate gender perspectives in the institutional development and operational capacity building of the Georgian Armed Forces.
The Ministry of Defense of Georgia together with DCAF and with partnership of UK and Spanish MoDs implemented Women, Peace and Security Organizational Assessment project, financially supported by the NATO SPS program. The project was designed to improve gender balance and reduce barriers to women within the Georgian Armed Forces, contributed to Georgia’s strategic objectives to implement the UNSCR 1325 and related resolutions. Moreover, it aimed to build MoD capacity to design, develop and execute gender related organizational climate studies and elaborate recommendations.
The Georgian delegation in the Geneva International Discussions (GID) and the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanisms (IPRMs) actively raises all issues related to the needs and priorities of women IDPs and conflict-affected women within each round of the GID. The issues are highlighted with the co-chairs of the Geneva International Discussions (EU, UN, OSCE), as well as with other international organizations and partner countries to properly reflect the needs and priorities of women IDPs and conflict-affected women in peaceful conflict resolution process.
In order to increase the expertise of public servants dealing with conflict-related issues, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia together with UN Women has started to establish the training course in the Levan Mikeladze Diplomatic Training and Research Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia.
Georgian participants of the GID and the IPRMs meet regularly with the representatives of the civil society, including NGOs,women’s rights defenders, as well as with the women IDPs and conflict affected women in order to ensure that the needs and priorities of women IDPs and conflict-affected women are integrated in the planning of the peace process and raised at the negotiation formats, particularly at the GID and the IPRMs.
The mental health System Development Strategy is being updated to address the needs of displaced and conflict-affected populations, especially women and girls. Once the strategy project is completed, they will be actively involved in the review and implementation processes.
Georgia included these commitments to the implementation of UNSCR 1325 in its reporting in preparation for CSW64/Beijing+25 (pg. 64), and provided further updates on its work, particularly on localisation of the NAP and women’s rights in conflict-affected areas.
Further details on the NAP localisation initiative are also available on UN Women’s website. “One of UN Women’s top priorities for the 2018-2020 period is to provide support for the localization of the 1325 National Action Plan by fostering the active participation of grass-roots organizations, internally displaced and conflict-affected women and local governments. In this respect, UN Women is targeting ten municipalities in the regions of Imereti, Samegrelo and Shida Kartli that are adjacent to the Administrative Boundary Lines with Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, Georgia.”
A new NAP is not yet available.
Participation: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and Office of the State Minister of Georgia for Reconciliation and Civil Equity (SMR) will continueregular dialogues with women’s organizations around the Geneva International Discussions (GID) on the conflict in Georgia and the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanisms (IPRMs) with the aim of havingwomen’s participation in GID to reach parity (50 percent).
Additional Reading: UN Women publication – Benchmarks, Barriers and Bridging the Gaps: Enhancing Women’s Meaningful Participation and Contribution to Peace Processes in Georgia
Security Sector: Georgia commits to increasing the capacity of the security sector, Specialized Units, Special Tasks Department, peacekeeping personnel, law enforcement and Legal Aid Service employees on preventing, and responding to SGBV, including in conflict and post-conflict situations, and commits to institutionalizing Gender Advisers throughout the Ministry of Defense. As part of efforts to address SEA, the Ministry Internal Affairs is committed to introduce a formal complaint mechanism for sexual harassment.
Training on gender perspectives, the UNSCR 1325 and following resolutions are part of pre-deployment training for peacekeepers. About 1600 military service men and women were trained in 2019. Gender and domestic violence issues are also subject to PTDS sessions held by the MoD Psychologist post deployment.
In 2019, Gender Advisors Institutionalization process has been completed at the Ministry of Defense of Georgia. On brigade level, military appointees on the position of G1 and S1 automatically fulfill gender advisors’ functions.
Special training curriculum for gender advisors has been created, which itself became the mandatory for the abovementioned positions at the Ministry of Defense of Georgia. Also, special MOC was defined for gender advisors by the decree of Chief of Defense of Georgian Defense Forces.
In 2020, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) will set up internal complaints mechanism on sexual harassment. In order to achieve this goal, MIA with the support of UN Women and in cooperation with the Public Defender’s Office of Georgia, conductedinformation session on Sexual Harassment complaints mechanisms. In addition, MIA relevant staff participated in the training on the topic of investigation of sexual harassment cases using a victim and survivor centered approach.
Also, in 2019, MIA participated in the state-wide awareness- raising campaign on sexual harassment conducted within the 16- days of activism against gender-based violence.