October 2 – a husband killed his wife with an axe in front of their children in Ozurgeti district and then burnt down the house. October 17 – an ex-husband shot and killed a lecturer from the Tbilisi Ilia State University in the university building. October 19 – a drunken husband killed his wife with a knife in Gurjaani district. October 29 – a husband ruthlessly beat his 31-year-old pregnant wife in Dedoplistskaro; their 13-year-old child witnessed the incident.

According to official data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia [MIA], 77 incidents of physical and 122 incidents of psychological violence in families were observed from January to June 2014 in Georgia. About 30 women were killed as a result of domestic violence the last year.

As a rule, women become victims of violence. The most incidents of violence occurred in the capital.

Experts suppose the number of victimized women is much higher than official statistics show because official data contains only those incidents where the police was reported. Very often victims of domestic violence do not contact the police for help.

“It is a family business” – public responsibility

Why does not the victims of domestic violence contact law enforcement bodies for help? Why are neighbours, relatives and friends silence when they have information about domestic violence? Experts say negative stereotypes and stigma in the Georgian society play a key role.

“Official statistics cannot reflect the real picture in the country because a lot of incidents of domestic violence happen around us without police getting information about them. Victimized women only contact police officers in extremely difficult situations. There are different reasons – such as lack of information about their rights, tough social situation, mistrust to legal instruments and law enforcement bodies and stigma in the society. These are the main reasons why women do not contact police officers for help,” said the lawyer Eka Kobesashvili of Human Rights House Tbilisi.

The Georgian Public Defender’s Report of 2013 also highlights the problem of domestic violence. “Despite the number of awareness campaigns, legislative and institutional safeguards, and criminalization of domestic violence, people still live in the world of stereotypes, where domestic violence against women in most cases are justified. There is still is a widespread opinion that issues such as domestic violence must be solved in a closed social circle, namely the family, not by intervention from the outside”.
The study of 2013 conducted by the Public Policy Institute, clearly demonstrates the public attitude towards domestic violence. According to the survey, 34,6% of respondents in Tbilisi, Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and Kakheti regions, justifies physical violence against wives, if she does not pay attention to their children, argues with her husband, she is a bad cook, refuses intercourse with her husband or leaves home without permission.

“The public often demonstrates no tolerance against the victims of harassment and such persons suffer from double discrimination. The report from the Public Defender of Georgia of 2013 tells that the victims in a number of cases fail to realise the violence executed against her or decides to endure it in order to avoid being “blamed in public”.

Experts of the field believe public awareness regarding domestic violence is very low. The media plays a key role in providing the society with correct and adequate information.

“The media plays a key role in getting incidents covered correctly. It is a very sensitive topic for the society. If the information is incorrect reported, it can be spread in the society as an infection. Observations showed that a number of homicides and suicides increased when incidents were reported as sensations. Journalists should avoid preparing TV-reportages where their personal feelings are demonstrated and the goal of  creating a sensation is more important than finding a solution to the problem. In such situations journalists can act as “infection transmitters”, psychologist Sopo Tabagua says.

How can we fight against domestic violence?

In 2006 Parliament of Georgia adopted the Law of Georgia on Preventing Domestic Violence, Protecting and Assisting the Victims of Domestic Violence, which aims to provide victims of violence with legal protection and punish perpetrators under the law. Article 3 of the Law clarifies the essence of the domestic violence. “Domestic violence stands for violation of constitutional rights and freedoms of one family member by the other, in conjunction with physical, psychological or sexual violence, coercion or threat to undertake such actions.” The head of the Legal Aid Center at Human Rights Center Tamar Avaliani clarified national regulations about domestic violence. “The main instruments are listed in the Administrative Procedural Code of Georgia – it is deterrent and protect orders. Police officers has the right to issue a deterrent order on the harasser, which implies protection leverage for the victim – and isolation from the harasser. The City Court issues protective order. Domestic violence is punishable by the criminal law – Article 126′.”

Tamar Avaliani believes the article is ineffective because the sanction imposed on the harasser for the grave domestic violence – corrective labour and imprisonment up to one year – is very inadequate. She welcomes the initiative of the Government of Georgia to introduce changes in this article because insicents such as domestic violence is a criminal offense where investigations should be conducted.

The representative of the Union Safari, lawyer Baia Pataraia responded to the initiative of the MIA to use imprisonment as preventive measure against violators in the first part of the Article 126′. She thinks it might discourage victims to call patrol police. Baia Pataraia added that Article 126′ only applies to some cases of physical assault and psychological violence which makes it a minor sanction due to its preventive character; whilst Article 11′ applies to more grave crimes.

“Article 126′ has more preventive character to combat future grave incidents in the families. In the past the stakeholders were working on this article and I also participated in the process. We did not add imprisonment as a compulsory measure there on purpose. The idea was that the article had a preventive effect, and should not discourage a victim of domestic violence to apply to police fearing that the harasser would be immediately arrested. Many victimized women, which for example apply to Safari for legal or other consultations, refrain from applying to the police. They need guarantees that grave sanctions will not be imposed on the harasser when the incident of violence does not have a serious character. The reason is that very often the harasser is the only breadwinner in the family and his imprisonment might cause serious financial problems for the family. MIA shall consider these circumstances and present arguments why they intend to make Article 126′ more severe. They must find some other solutions not to undermine the interests of the parties.”

According to the information published on the official website of the MIA, when police is reported about an incident of domestic violence, the patrol police crew visits the family. If the incident takes place in an area beyond the working area of the patrol police, the district police inspectors visit them. When observing the incidents of domestic violence, police officers are authorized to issue a deterrent order on the harasser in order to secure the victim and prevent incidents of violence in the future.

According to the MIA website, the Police Academy annually organizes training courses about domestic violence for police officers in cooperation with local and international non-governmental organizations. The MIA participates in surveys conducted in this field. Experts of the field say this is not enough because part of the police officers still do not have enough awareness about preventive measures, particularly in the regions of Georgia. Lawyer Tamar Avaliani says she has witnessed many incidents when patrol police officers were indifferent towards the incidents of domestic violence. She says that law enforcement officers rarely use deterrent orders, and the only thing they do is to warn the harasser about not repeating it.

Nino Akhobadze