Georgian prosecutors together with inspectors, instructors and staff members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs attended the second launch of the Council of Europe HELP (Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals) course to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence at the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia on 12 June 2018. The course was launched for the second time after the first group of prosecutors successfully completed the course. The successful participants will be rewarded with certificates soon.
In his opening remarks, Deputy Chief Prosecutor Giorgi Gogadze highlighted the importance of the cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the cases of domestic violence and violence against women. He expressed his gratitude towards Council of Europe Office for giving the opportunity to the professionals to deepen their knowledge in combating the violence against women.
Christian Urse, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Tbilisi stressed the good cooperation of the Council of Europe with the Chief Prosecutor’s Office, the Parliament and the Public Defender’s Office as well as with other stakeholders, particularly following the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention) by Georgia in 2017.
Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Natia Mezvrishvili, thanked the Council of Europe Office for giving the opportunity to her staff members to follow the online course on such a highly–discussed topic as violence against women is. She emphasised several reforms that are currently being implemented in the Ministry towards the training and specialisation of the inspectors and police officers working on preventing violence against women and domestic violence.
The presentation of the Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) Programme of the Council of Europe was done by Ana-Maria Telbis, from the Council of Europe HELP unit, who explained to the participants the HELP methodology and the technicalities of the online platform.
The course will be tutored by Head of the Human Rights Unit of the Prosecutor’s Office, Salome Shengelia, who presented the Georgian context and legal order regarding the criminalisation of violence against women and the need to prosecute perpetrators. Following the face-to-face launch, the prosecutors and staff members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will continue their training online for a period of three months.
The course, developed by the Council of Europe, aims at improving the quality of the judicial response to cases of violence against women and at supporting access to justice for victims while prosecuting perpetrators. It covers in interactive ways the key concepts, the international and European legal framework and the European case law governing the prevention and protection of women and girls from violence, focusing in particular on the Istanbul Convention.
The course can be accessed in English on the HELP online platform at this link.
For more information please download this course brief.
