Georgian Parliament Agrees to Discuss Petition on Femicide
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, May 18
Georgian parliament will discuss the petition, started by the Movement of Women regarding the prohibition of Femicide in Georgia.
The legislative body made such a decision after the Legal Committee supported the petition, which means that the issue will be discussed by the parliament.
“The Committee considered the petition submitted by the Women's Movement (with more than 1000 electronic signatures of the supporters) asking for the elaboration of the relevant article or introducing aggravating circumstances in the Criminal Code of Georgia in case of gender-motivated murders,” the website of the parliament reads.
It also says that the petition authors say femicide offenders should face the imprisonment up to 13-20 years; And in case of other aggravating circumstances, life imprisonment.
“Members of the Legal Issues Committee supported the launch of the discussions over the petition,” the Chair of the Committee Eka Beselia said.
The organization started the petition in April, 2018, adding such a step is caused by frequent facts of murdering women.
“These murders are not like other murders. They were committed because the victims are women. Such murders are called femicide,” the petition reads.
The authors explain that during femicide the murderer believes this is a step to “punish” a woman for inappropriate behavior, or because they believe that “by murdering a woman the killer will restore his dignity.”
“Femicide is a discriminatory crime and it is not defined by the Georgian legislation. It is usually punished as other crimes,” the petition reads.
The signatories of the petition address the Parliament of Georgia to either define femicide or to adopt a special article about its prohibition.
The petition also addressed the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia (POG), saying before the enactment of the special article about femicide, the Prosecutor's Office should find out if the motive of murder was gender discrimination, in order to increase the efficiency of investigations.
As for the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), the authors of the petition call on them to timely evaluate all possible risk factors in order to timely avoid femicide cases.
The statement also addresses the President of Georgia, calling him on not using the pardon authority for the offenses like femicide and other gender-motivated crimes.
