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

approaches to addressing them. As women are generally more involved in activism on IDP issues, itfollows that gender plays a role in limiting IDPs’ ability to influence higher-level policymaking processes.Parliament’s Gender Equality Council may help address this issue. It focuses particularly on increasingthe involvement of women IDPs, usually by engaging with female NGO representatives. For example,Julia Kharashvili of the IDP Women’s Association “Consent” sits on the Council as an IDP activist. TheCouncil more generally conducts “meetings with the leading women IDPs,” who support programs “onfinding women leaders and raising their awareness on political and economic activities.” 203 Policydocuments such as the action plans on IDPs and gender equality play an important role, in that they“make the executive accountable to these responsibilities.” Zurab Mchedlishvili, the council’scoordinator, also recognizes the limits of the Council: "The State has expressed its willingness toregulate the gender equality issues in the country. However, due to the lack of state resources, thesupport from donor organizations is crucial for the regulation of these issues." 204 Broader attitudestowards the equal involvement of women alongside men in decision-making may also curtail theCouncil’s effectiveness. However, it remains an important step forward in women’s and particularlyIDPs’ opportunities for participating in policymaking.Developing the National Action Plan for Implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325The Georgian government’s adoption of the UN Security Council Resolutions on “Women, Peace andSecurity” (1325, 1820, 1888, 1889 and 1960) and the National Action Plan for Implementation (NAP)present a positive model of women’s and IDPs’ participation in national-level policymaking. While theresolutions address conflict-affected women more broadly, IDPs are a key target population and thedocument explicitly references them in most of its objectives. The NAP, approved by the GeorgianParliament on 27 December 2011, promotes women’s participation in conflict resolution, eliminatinggender-based violence, and addressing women’s particular needs in conflict and recovery. 205In many ways paralleling the development of the IDP State Strategy and updated Action Plan, theprocess of creating the NAP also involved a number of international, national, and local stakeholders.UN Women created an ad-hoc government commission that included civil society representatives. Mostnotably, however, it clearly engaged IDPs and conflict-affected women to contribute to the policy. A UNWomen representative describes how both “the grassroots…rural women…in buffer zones…womenliving in collective centers, IDPs who have experienced all the consequences of conflict on their lives”203 Zurab Mchedlishvili (Coordinator of the Gender Equality Council), Personal Interview, 15 March 2012.204 Ibid.205 Government of Georgia. “2012-2015 National Action Plan for Implementation of the UN Security Council Resolutions #1325,1820, 1888, 1889 and 1960 on ‘Women, Peace and Security.’” 27 December 2011.42