The manual was jointly developed by the Council of Europe (CoE), UN Women and “Equality Now”, for which the Deputy Minister thanked the partner organizations. The manual aims to improve the knowledge and skills of the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for investigation of sexual violence cases, provision of victim-oriented and human-rights based approaches, as well as effective preparation of criminal cases for prosecution.
Aleksandre Darakhvelidze emphasized the peculiarities of the investigation of crimes of sexual violence and the necessity to conduct all stages of judicial proceedings guided by gender sensitive methodology. Deputy Minister noted that in order to achieve these objectives, the development of the manual – “Investigation of sexual violence, criminal prosecution and trial” is a crucial tool for the Ministry of Internal affairs in aligning sexual violence investigation process even closer with international human rights standards.
Deputy Minister emphasized that the Ministry of Internal Affairs specializes investigators in effective investigations of sexual violence cases based on the manual, namely 127 investigators and 10 instructors of the Ministry’s territorial and structural units have been retrained. It is noteworthy that by the end of this year, all relevant units of the Ministry will be fully staffed with specialized investigators.
The manual has been developed in the framework of the Council of Europe project – “Promoting an integrated approach to end violence against women and enhancing gender equality in Georgia” with the support of the Swedish Government, United Nations Joint Program (UNJP) on Gender Equality and organization “Equality Now”.
The project has been implemented since 2020 in close cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia and with the support of the Council of Europe.
