Statement by Nana Mzhavanadze

To the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women on the second and third combined periodic report from the Government of Georgia

15 August 2006

Thank you Madam Chairperson, thank you Honourable Committee for giving me chance to present to you Alternative Report of Georgian NGOs. I speak on behalf of Women’s Political Recourse Centre, which contributed to Shadow Report on the second and third combined periodic report from the Government of Georgia. I want to raise two critical areas in which, we perceive, Georgian Government violates obligation to Convention for full development and advancement of women.

Institutional mechanisms and Legislation

The expectations towards new Government were very high – it was supposed that new Government will introduce new styles and practices of democratic governance that will affect women more substantially. It is obvious that Georgia is moving forward towards equality, but still there is a lot of work to be undertaken.

By 2006, the Georgian Government established two important institutional mechanisms:

• Advisory Council under the Chairperson of the Parliament. (2004);
• Gender Equality Commission under Prime Minister. (2005).

Just recently, Gender equality concept was elaborated and Action Plan for Women’s Advancement was created.

But it should be mentioned that the work of both institutional mechanisms still remain formal and inert. Since 2004, out of more then 2000 laws, which were adopter by Georgian Parliament, only five were review from gender perspective. The adoption of Gender equality Law and essential legislation for equitable justice is still postponed for indefinite future. As a result, there is a raise of indirect discrimination of women.

Neither institutional mechanism deals with concrete violations of women’s human rights and abuses.

We recommend that urgent action has to be taken to insure adoption of essential legislation for equitable justice and development of genuine institutional structure to deal with concrete violations of women’s human rights.

Participation in political and public life

Certain positive changes have occurred concerning women’s representation in decision-making structures since 2004:

• In the Parliament out of 277 MPs 22 are women, which is equal to 9.7% - there is an increase of 2.1%
• From gender perspective the executive branch of the power is also subjected to improvement. Since 1989, there is the highest representation of women as governing bodies - 17% (7% increase since 2003);
• In Local Governance the figure of women’s representation is the same: - 11.8%;

However, despite the above-stated positive changes women’s empowerment in Georgia needs to be further developed. Still, Georgian political reality is far from genuine estimation of women’s participation and women’s representation in decision-making and governance.

All attempts of Women’s NGOs to initiate introduction of a q uota system for women met severe resistance. Women’s political networks presented to the Parliament four different legislative recommendations that were directed to increase women’s representation in political sphere – these recommendations in different manner demanded introduction of quotas for women in political parties. Unfortunately, all these attempts failed.

Although, it has been numerously recommended by international agencies to introduce Affirmative Action, women in Georgia are decidedly underrepresented, no genuine action has been undertaken by the State.

We want to question, why do not Georgian Authorities undertake all necessary measures to improve the current situation and fulfill their obligations to the convention? Why temporary special measures such as positive action, preferential treatment or quota system are not considered by them appropriate for advancing women’s integration in democratic developments and politics of the country?

We recommend that:

• The Georgian Government, as a matter of urgency, adopt the temporary special measures aimed at acceleration de facto equality between men and women in political participation and decision-making.l

This page was last updated on November 6, 2006

“IWRAW Asia Pacific is an independent, non-profit, NGO in Special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.”
©IWRAW Asia Pacific
Contact Us | Site Map