National Research on Domestic Violence Against Women in

freedoms committed by one family member in relationto other family member, through physical, psychological,economic, sexual abuse or violence, with which thelegal grounds were prepared for issuing protective andrestrictive orders” 33 .The Law requires a large-scale prevention effort thro ughcooperation of government ministries, cour ts, prosecutors,and other stakeholders. The new Law calls for theuse of administrative, criminal and civil penalties whereappropriate, and provides two new remedies: a protectiveorder and a restrictive order, to be issued by courtsand police to provide immediate protection for the victim.The Law requires the establishment of shelter andsocial services and requests that the government ofGeorgia approve an Action Plan to support these measureswithin four months of publication of the new Law 34 .In December 2008, the Presidential Decree establi shedthe advisory and coordination body on DV entitled theState Inter-agency Council on Domestic Violence (theCouncil) to support and strengthen the implementationof the Law on DV. This step is widely viewed as a demonstrationof the political will and state commitment to theelimination of DV. The Council, composed of the representativesof the line ministries, international organizations,and independent experts, is tasked with fosteringthe effective implementation of the governmental functionsand coordinating the multi-stakeholder efforts inpreventing, eradicating and eliminating all forms of domesticviolence.Furthermore, in December 2008 the Statute of the StateFund for Protection and Assistance of (Statutory) Victimsof Human Trafficking (hereinafter – State Fund) wasalso amended to include in its mandate the work withvictims of domestic violence and implementation of therespective preventive mechanisms. The State Fund wasestablished under a presidential decree of 18 July 2006. 35The adoption of the Law was followed by the elaborationand adoption of the periodic 2-year Action Planson Elimination of Domestic Violence, Protection andSupport to its Victims (2007-2008 and 2009-2010). The33. Aladashvili, I., Kiknadze, Z., Nozadze, N. (2009). UNPFA RegionalLegislative Analysis and Mapping for Regional Partners. CountryReport-Georgia34. Thomas, C., Nelson, L., Ellingen, M., Sumbadze, N. (2006). DO-MESTIC VIOLENCE AND CHILD ABUSE IN GEORGIA: An Assessment ofCurrent Standings of Law and Practice Regarding Domestic Violenceand Child Abuse in Georgia, and Recommendations for Future UnitedNations Country Team Involvement. Institute for Policy Studies, MinnesotaAdvocates for Human Rights35. presidential decree of July 18, 2006, The state fund for victims oftrafficking, protection and support of victimsaction plans lay out concrete ways to implement the articlesof the Law. On the positive note, it is worth mentioning,that the practise of assessing the implementationof the Action Plan has been intro duced to informthe formulation of the next Action Plan 36 . Such AssessmentReport on implementation of the 2007-2008 ActionPlan by Irma Aladashvili and Ketevan Chkheidze,lists a number of activities have not been fully implementedand gives corresponding recommendations forthe next action plan.The adoption of the law was followed by the need to developthe <strong>National</strong> Referral Mechanisms for the Victimsof DV (NRM) 37 . In March, 2009, with the initiative ofthe Interagency Coordination Council on DV, and in partnershipwith the Young Lawyers Association of Georgia(GYLA), UNFPA Georgia co-funded the efforts to developthe <strong>National</strong> Referral Mechanisms for the Victims of DV(NRM), which was adopted by the Inter-Agency Councilin the summer of 2009The absence of the legislative basis for introductionand regulating the institute of social workers qualifiedto deal with domestic violence issues, the lack ofshelters, as envisaged by the Law, as well as insufficientinvolvement of the health care system in the preventionand response mechanisms remain a barrier to adequatelysupport victims.In 2010 UNIFEM Launches with the generous supportof the Swedish International Development CooperationAgency (Sida) implementation of the project “EnhancingPrevention and Response to Domestic Violence” –ShiEld. In the frame of the project UNIFEM will Supportthe State Fund for Protection and Assistance of (Statutory)Victims of Human Trafficking to build two sheltersfor DV victims in Tbilisi and Gori.There are number of NGOs, working on the DomesticViolence issues with relatively extensive experience ofcombating domestic violence and implemented manyprojects in the field.The activities of these agencies, as well as other newand useful information about efforts to end the most36. With the support of the UNFPA implemented “CombatingGender-based Violence in the South Caucasus Project”37. NRM-The action plan for the prevention of domestic violence andthe protection and rehabilitation of victims of domestic violence is adocument for cooperation and mutual agreement between GeorgianState Institutions, international organizations and NGOs workingon the issues of domestic violence. The objective of the <strong>National</strong>Referral Mechanism is to determine actions to be taken to preventdomestic violence as well as to protect and support victims.20