Promoting IDPs' and Women's Voices in Post-Conflict Georgia

eventual removal of the restrictions on voting rights of IDPs. As a result, IDPs could vote at all levels ofelections, while maintaining their permanent residence in their places of origin in order to not give uptheir IDP status. 84 This served as an important example of IDPs organizing and advocating for their rightsthrough the judicial system—in this case, to provide themselves with a political voice through voting.Although IDPs can legally vote and stand for office, their voter turnout remains at levels much lowerthan that of the national average. 85 IDPs still lack information on their voting rights and some claim thatthey can still only vote in the presidential elections. 86 There are also other issues such as inaccurate listsof IDPs who are eligible to vote and a lack of capacity by Georgian electoral and government officials toenable IDPs to exercise their voting rights. IDPs also rarely stand for office, due to factors such as limitedfinancial resources and access to political networks, discussed in more detail in further sections. 87ParliamentIDPs currently experience limited direct representation in Parliament. Prior to 2004, theirrepresentatives came from the Abkhaz government-in-exile. The Parliament decided to end themandate of the 11 parliamentary deputies from the government-in-exile in April 2004 untilparliamentary elections, organized by the Georgian authorities, can be held in Abkhazia. 88 Although noformal structure exists within Parliament for members to represent IDP issues, this issue is apparentlywithin the scope of the Parliamentary Commission on Territorial Integrity Issues, headed by ShotaMalashkhia. 89 Interestingly, only one interviewee mentioned this commission, 90 and an IDP MP and amember of the commission did not refer to it at all during his interview. Currently, only about two orthree IDPs sit in Parliament. 91Similar to there being only few IDP MPs, women comprise only six percent of the Georgian Parliament.Deputy Chairperson Rusudan Kervalishvili summed up the significance of this low statistic, arguing thatthis is “not [a] democracy when 50% of the population are women.” 92 In the effort to address suchissues and promote women’s voices in policymaking, the Deputy Speaker leads the recently establishedGender Equality Council. 93 More specifically, the council,“brings non-governmental and governmental representatives [together] to discuss andissue recommendations on gender issues, to help ensure that women’s voices are heard84 Mooney, 212.85 Ibid., 213.86 David Chochia (Office Manager/Researcher, International Crisis Group), Personal Interview, 20 March 2012.87 Mooney, 213.88 Mooney, 212; Out of the Margins: Securing a Voice for Internally Displaced People, 16-17.89 Georgia. Parliament of Georgia. "Temporary Commission on Territorial Integrity Issues.” Web. 28 April 2012.90 Khatuna Gogorishvili (MP, Parliament of Georgia), Personal Interview, 22 March 2012.91 Kornely Kakachia (Professor, Tbilisi State University), Personal Interview, 30 January 2012.92 Rusudan Kervalishvili (Deputy Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia), Personal Interview, 22 March 2012.93 The council was established as a permanent body in 2009 (IDMC, 128)24