Gender equality, which implies equal rights, obligations, responsibilities, and equal participation of women and men in all spheres of personal and public life, promotes the development of the country and society – protects human rights, creates the foundation for economic strengthening, eliminates discrimination, and ensures gender balance in any sphere.
Work on gender equality issues in Georgia began in 1994, when the Government of Georgia signed the important document “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women” (CEDAW). The Convention aims to achieve gender equality and provides for ensuring equal rights for women in all spheres of public life.
Work towards ensuring gender equality became particularly active after amendments were made to Georgia’s Law on Gender Equality in 2016, which obligates local self-government to protect the principles of gender equality and provides for the creation of gender equality councils in municipal assemblies.
“Kvira” was interested in what measures were implemented to ensure gender equality in Telavi Municipality and offers you an interview with the Chairman of the Municipality Council and Gender Equality Council – Archil Tkhlashidze.
Mr. Archil, how important is supporting gender equality for the development of municipalities, specifically Telavi, and when was the Gender Equality Council created?
Gender equality represents a fundamental principle of democratic development and, accordingly, this issue is one of the priority directions not only of local but also of state importance. Over recent years, the Government of Georgia has implemented several significant measures aimed at eliminating and preventing violence against women and domestic violence. This issue is also one of the main priorities of our municipality. To achieve gender equality and realize equal rights for women and men in Telavi Municipality, the Gender Equality Council was created in 2018, whose composition includes, along with decision-makers, including the deputy mayor and the chairman of the council, representatives of the non-governmental sector, which speaks to the importance of the council and makes the advocacy process of projects/proposals presented by the council more effective. The council has an action plan, whose implementation process involves coordination and monitoring of document execution.
Specifically, what measures does Telavi Municipality implement to promote gender equality?
The Gender Equality Council actively cooperates with both local and international non-governmental organizations, including the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia (NALAG). Within the framework of the project “Localization of Gender Policy,” which the association implements in cooperation with UN Women and with the support of the Government of Norway, a meeting was held with representatives of Telavi Municipality, where they discussed the development of gender equality action plan guidelines for Georgia’s municipalities and the European Charter on Equality of Women and Men in Local Life. The organization also prepared and provided us with informational posters containing essential information about state services existing in Georgia for victim support and violence prevention. At NALAG’s initiative, these posters were placed not only in municipal administrative buildings but also in crowded places, which further contributed to raising public awareness.
In the direction of gender equality, a Women’s Room also functions in the municipality administration building, which was created with financial assistance from the Government of Switzerland and support from international organizations. The purpose of this space is to provide necessary information and services for women. In addition, through the Women’s Room, local residents, especially women, have the opportunity for simplified coordination with the municipality, which promotes increased equal participation of women and men in decision-making processes at the local level.
Since 2019, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) has been actively cooperating with Telavi Municipality, providing individual consultation to the council in refining forms of communication with vulnerable groups, advocating for their issues, and better developing budget initiatives. In cooperation with them, we developed recommendations for the Gender Equality Council and 2 budget initiatives aimed at providing housing for the homeless. When forming Telavi Municipality’s main financial document for 2020, the mayor’s office took into account the Gender Equality Council’s initiative, which provides for the arrangement of infrastructure adapted for people with disabilities. In addition, municipal transport was activated in Telavi, which is fully adapted for people with disabilities.
It should also be noted that the importance of the Gender Equality Council became even more evident during the coronavirus pandemic, as restrictions imposed due to the global situation most affected vulnerable groups. Accordingly, the Gender Equality Council worked actively in this direction.
Telavi Municipality’s Gender Equality Council joins the 16-day global campaign against violence every year, and despite the new COVID-19 pandemic, we enthusiastically participated in this campaign this year as well, within the framework of which we implemented several measures. Among them: public servants employed in Telavi Municipality received online training on issues of eliminating sexual harassment in the workplace. An informational meeting was held for homeless children living in the small family-type house in the village of Kurdgelauri. At the online meeting, young people learned about legal regulations regarding early marriage and various problems associated with it. For the purpose of women’s economic empowerment, a two-day online training was conducted on the topic: “Start and Develop Your Business.”
What measures does the Gender Equality Council plan to implement in the future?
Various studies have shown that one of the main prerequisites for achieving gender equality is women’s economic empowerment. Therefore, it is crucial that women be given the opportunity for equal access to various resources, including economic, educational, and other important resources. In addition, it is necessary to launch an active information campaign so that women, first and foremost, develop the desire to be employed in decision-making positions, which is related to stereotypical approaches existing in society, and finally, one of the most important issues for us is gender budgeting, whose implementation ensures equal distribution of women’s and men’s needs in municipal projects and programs.
Telavi Municipality continues to pursue activities that involve supporting women’s and children’s rights, gender equality and the rights of people with disabilities, as well as measures to be implemented in the areas of early marriage, domestic violence against women, and other directions.