Georgia Presents Ratification Instruments for Istanbul Convention

Georgia’s Foreign Minister Mikeil Janelidze, who is visiting Nicosia, Cyprus to attend 127th Session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, on May 19 has deposited the instrument of ratification of the Council of Europe’s Convention (the Istanbul Convention) on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

The Convention, which defines and criminalizes all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence, was adopted by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on April 7, 2011. Georgia is the 23rd CoE state to ratify the Convention. The country acceded to the Convention in 2014 and ratified it in May, 2017.

“The ratification of the Convention indicates clearly that Georgia attaches paramount importance to the upholding of such values as human rights, the rule of law and democracy,” the Foreign Affairs Ministry stated in its press release on May 19.

Parties to the Convention are obliged to prevent violence and protect victims, including through granting the police powers to remove the perpetrator from his or her home in situations of immediate danger, setting up sufficient number of easily accessible shelters and crisis referral centers, and providing free 24/7 specialized helplines.

For monitoring of the compliance of parties to Convention provisions, a special group of an independent experts (GREVIO) was established. According to the CoE communications directorate, GREVIO will start publish its first observations later this year. As Georgia has only now ratified it, a report on Georgia will be prepared at a later stage.

Within the framework of his visit to Cyprus, on May 18, Mikheil Janelidze met his Cyprian counterpart Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides. The minister will also deliver a speech at the ministerial meeting on the human rights situation in Georgia’s occupied regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Georgian MFA said.