My Government benefits from women leaders, PM says
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, September 29
Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili delivered a speech at Global Leaders Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s empowerment in the frame of the 70th session of the United Nation’s General Assembly (UNGA) on September 27 in New York.
The Prime Minister touched upon the problems and the achievements Georgia has faced with regard to women’s rights.
The PM stressed that in 2011, the Parliament of Georgia approved the 2012-2015 National Action Plan for the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolutions on "Women, Peace and Security".
In 2013, the legislative body adopted the Domestic Violence Action Plan 2013-2015, which was followed by the National Action Plan on Gender Equality for 2014-2016.
“An important milestone was the adoption of the Non-discrimination Law in 2014. We also last year signed the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence,” Garibashvili said.
Garibashvili emphasized that his Government benefited from women leaders.
“My government benefits from the leadership of women Ministers of Defence, of Justice, of Education. Critical positions such as that of Secretary of the National Security Council, Chair of the Central Election Commission of Georgia, and Chair of the Supreme Court of Georgia are also held by women,” he said.
He also stated that 2015 was declared as a year of women in Georgia.
When it came to future steps the PM named five main directions:
He said that Georgia will continue to update, enhance and develop the next phases of Gender Equality, Domestic Violence and Women, Peace and Security National Action Plans and also develop a national Gender Equality Strategy; an inter-ministerial commission on gender would be set up; updating and reforming of legal system, labour code among them; working with development partners, UN family and civil society to jointly address the practice of early marriages; awareness-raising campaigns on specific priority issues such as combatting violence against women and girls and domestic violence, and prevention of early marriages.
He also stated that on 9-10 November Georgia will host the International High-Level Conference on achieving gender equality in the European Neighbourhood region.
Garibashvili left for the United States on September 25 and is due to return to Georgia on October 3.
