The organization “Young Barristers” appeals to the Government of Georgia, in preparation of the strategy against domestic violence, to make priority the creation of shelters for victims of violence in almost all regions of Gerogia and objectively review the applications of the victim status recipients, which, in 2013-2014, reached a high statistics.

Accordint to statement of lawyer of the “Young Barristers” – Ana Kiknadze, to make amendments in the Criminal Code of Georgia should be accelerated, which concerns strict criminal policy applied by the state against domestic violence. According to the current legislation, assault  from one family member against another is punishable by community service work for a period of from 80 to 150 hours and then after legislative changes, this punishment will plus one year imprisonment. The fact of domestic violence under aggravating circumstances will be tightened also. In this case, the term of imprisonment will grow from one to three years.

According statistics requested by the “Young Barristers”, 9 month data of 2014 year, the court issued 34 protective orders and 172 restraining order has been approved, which compared to previous years, is higher than expected. In addition, according to 6 month information of 2013-2014 of the the Ministry of Internal Affairs, regarding domestic violence, prosecuting started towards 310 persons, from here 298 are men and 21 women. The victim status had been given to 468 persons, of whom 372 are women and 96 men. It should be noted that, according to 2010 year data of the UN Population Fund, in Georgia every 11th of woman is a victim of physical violence.

The “Young Barristers” evaluates, that practical problem is the lack of desire to fight against domestic violence. It is possible to exist the mechanism of criminal prosecution in legislation, although its practical use is less likely to happen. In the process of the new regulations on domestic violence, law enforcement officials should increase legal interest, in order to exist practical reaction steps towards all cases of violence, regardless of the form or quality. If the police cannot protect victims of domestic violence, it is possible to encourage crime and then impunity might encourage domestic violence. Therefore, we believe that law enforcement agencies should be adequately prepare to implement the new criminal policy towards the domestic violence.

The ,,Young Barristers" presents statistics on the number of activities for the prevention of domestic violance:

For more information: restraining and protective orders are issued in order of domestic violence prevention, protection and assistance to victims of domestic violence. Protective order is issued by the court, and the restraining order by police officer, which must be submitted to the court for approval during 24 hours.