On 20 October 2017 in Tbilisi, the trainers of the High School of Justice of Georgia participated in a training needs assessment workshop on Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence co-organised by the UN Women Georgia and the Council of Europe Office in Tbilisi. The objective of the workshop was to prepare a module on the above mentioned topic in line with the judges training needs.

The workshop, led by the UN Women expert and was attended by four judges – trainers of the High School of Justice. The judges – who work in the Tbilisi and Kutaisi Court of Appeal - enriched the discussion with the challenging cases encountered in courts and the problem of testimonies of women victims and victims of domestic violence cases. Special attention was also paid to protective orders, which are issued by courts based on the police requests.

In the words of one of the judges of the Tbilisi Court of Appeals, Mr Gocha Abuseridze, ‘Violence against women and domestic violence is especially widespread in regions of the country with less awareness on these issues. It will be useful for judges to not only learn about the essence of the problem, but understand details which will help them during the court review.’ As a result of the workshop, the preliminary structure and the list of required materials for the future training module and Training of Trainers were determined.

The activity was co-organised within the framework of the Council of Europe Project “Strengthening the capacity of the High School of Justice of Georgia”. This Project is funded by voluntary contributions of Bulgaria, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Norway, Slovak Republic and Sweden to support the implementation of the Council of Europe Action plan for Georgia 2016-2019.

Keywords: High School of Justice of Georgia, violence against women training module, domestic violence, judge, court staff training, Council of Europe Action Plan for Georgia.