Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Nino Tsatsiashvili participated in the online conference "Implementation of Legal Norms Regulating Sexual Harassment: Achieved Results and Challenges".
The event was held as the part of 16-day global campaign against gender-based violence, initiated by the Office of the Public Defender and supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) program- Promoting Rule of Law in Georgia (PROLoG).
The conference aimed to discuss the results and challenges achieved in the process of regulating sexual harassment, as well as to exchange information on existing practices and challenges, to share experiences with representatives of relevant agencies.
The Deputy Minister discussed the role of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the process of implementation of the article on sexual harassment regulated by the Code of Administrative Offenses of Georgia. Nino Tsatsiashvili also stressed the importance of boosting qualification of law enforcement officers and raising public awareness on the mentioned issue in order to increase the rate of addressing the police on the facts of sexual harassment in public places and the level of police response.
Since the enactment of the mentioned article on May 2019, more than 200 law enforcement officers have undergone relevant training on sexual harassment issues. In the conditions of global pandemic, the intensive trainings are held nevertheless. Relevant instructions on effective response to sexual harassment have also been drafted for law enforcement.
It is notable that within the frames of 16-day Global Campaign on Violence Against Women, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will present a report on the response to the facts of sexual harassment committed in public, the results achieved, the existing challenges as well as future plans in this regard.
