The Ministry of Internal Affairs, expressing its respect to the Ombudsman, a leading national institution in the field of human rights and confirming its readiness for cooperation, considers to be accountable to the Public Defender and the civil society and give answers to some remarks addressed to our Office.
The statement of the Ombudsman of Georgia published on December 23, 2014
does not reflect the latest situation related to the domestic violence and violence against women as well as the expectations for tackling the problems provided in it are unrealistic; in particular:
1) The Minister has taken under his personal control the issue of application of the mechanism envisaged by the law for the cases of domestic violence, this is confirmed by the legislative changes initiated by the MoIA for toughening the criminal responsibility in the cases of domestic violence; also the Decree #726 of the Minister of Internal Affairs on “Prevention of Domestic Violence and Establishment of Response Commission” and the Instruction #45 of December 9, 2014 of the Minister on “Toughening the Response Measures against the Facts of Domestic Violence” clearly identified the issuance of the restrictive order by the Patrol Police Department and the territorial organs of the Ministry.
2) The authorized employees were duly explained the sensitivity of the issue, moreover, the officers of the territorial organs of the MoIA (policewomen and policemen staff) were trained and identified for coordinated and effective response to domestic violence. Besides the mentioned, already 500 district inspectors received the police training being held in this respect;
3) The monthly index of the use of restrictive orders has increased from 2 to 145 for the last 11 months; 74% of the facts of domestic violence registered in 2014 are already solved and the perpetrators given to the responsibility;
4) For prevention of violence a large-scale information campaign is conducted and a hotline established;
5) The Ministry of Internal Affairs is working over the national strategy of violence prevention with involvement of the stakeholders.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs works in its full capacity to prevent violence and render effective response to the violence-related facts. It should also be noted that the problem of domestic and women violence is the problem for the EU developed countries as well; according to the survey conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (see http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra-2014-vaw-survey-main-results-apr14_en.pdf) an average 33% of women above 15 years old are the victims of harassment. Also, it is worthwhile to mention the outcomes of the survey conducted in the sphere of gender relationship under the auspices of the Georgian Office of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA); the survey revealed the complex character and number of components of the problem, accordingly the expectation for full resolution of the issue only by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia would be the misleading of the civil society.
