Whilst having the state of emergency across the whole country, the issuance of 930 restraining orders on domestic violence one again indicates the severeness of the problem, the responsibility and effectiveness of the state in the process of avoiding the crime, in each case the effective reaction of the police, but, however, there are no accurate public statistics about how many restraining orders were appealed by the parties, what kind of decisions were made by the first-instance courts, how legitimately the fact of issuing the restraining order was considered in each cases and in how many cases have the courts decided to revoke the order. Such kind of statistics, unfortunately, aren't proactively published by the courts . The organization "Young Barrister's" lawyer, Ana Putkaradze makes legal explanation about the above mentioned problem.
According to Ana Putkaradze, domestic violence still remains a problem, which, indeed, needs an immediate response from the state. Based on the official information, 930 restraining orders were issued in March, 840 - in February and 947 in January. Moreover, investigation has been started for in about 470 cases, since the last month. 10% of them were related to the domestic violence against the minors, which, of course, is the most alarming for us. Based on the on-going dynamics, during the state of emergency, restraining orders have been mainly issued for the cases of psychological violence and not physical one, but, such facts separately, unfortunately, still took the place.
The law implies, that psychological violence is an offence, blackmailing, humiliation, threats, or any other action that violates a person's honour and dignity; however, it should be noted out, there are cases, when the psychological violence order is issued based on the interests of a minor, as there are difficult relationship between the parties due to their residence of place, and the constant tension has its own psycho-emotional pressure on the minors, but the courts consider the restraining orders against the legal representatives of the minors untrustworthy and annul the temporary measures taken by the police, based on the best interests of the child, which isn't the right approach to develop a uniform practice for the mentioned problem.
Indeed, based on the current challenges, the unappeasable policy of the state on the each of registered domestic violence cases causes even greater interest. The pandemic situation, quarantine and restriction rules further increase the risks of domestic violence. A potential victim, in such cases, is much more vulnerable. Therefore, it is essentially important to prevent any form of violence in the early stages and by the state to create a protocol, where the potential abusers and potential victims don't find themselves in the same space of the relationship.
Our appeal is to contact the law enforcement agencies immediately in any case through the 112. Also, it should be welcomed, that there is anonymous hotline for consultations - 116 006, where the legal and psychological counseling is provided in 8 languages. Anyone, who considers, that the restraining order is groundless, is entitled to address the court and the court is obliged to review the case within 3 days after filing the complaint and make a decision. In such cases, the appellant is exempted from paying the state duty, and the decision of the first-instance court can be only appealed once.
Based on the Law of Georgia On Violence Against Women and/or Elimination of Domestic Violence, Protection and Support of Victims of Violence, the term of violence in this law shall have the following meaning:
a) physical violence – beating, torture, damage to health, illegal deprivation of liberty or any other action that causes physical pain or suffering, withholding health needs, which leads to damage to health or death of a victim of violence;
b) psychological violence – offence, blackmailing, humiliation, threats, or any other action that violates a person's honour and dignity;
c) coercion – compelling a person by using physical or psychological force to carry out or fail to carry out an act, carrying out or refraining from which is the right of that person, or making a person tolerate an action carried out against his/her will;
d) sexual violence – sexual act by violence or threat of violence, or by taking advantage of the victim's helplessness; sexual act or other acts of sexual nature or child sexual abuse;
e) economic violence – an act, which causes restriction of the right to have food, dwelling and other conditions for normal development, to enjoy property and labour rights, to use common property and to administer one's own share of that property;
f) negligence of legal interests of a minor − failure by a parent(s), another legal representative and/or another responsible person to satisfy physical and psychological needs of a minor, protect him/her from danger, restrict his/her right to basic education, or failure to perform actions necessary to register birth, and to use medical and other services if the parent(s), another legal representative and/or another responsible person has (have) appropriate information, possibility and access to the appropriate services.
