Gender Equality Council Performance Assessed

The report conducted by International Transparency - Georgia within the framework of parliamentary monitoring project covers the activities of Gender Equality Council (hereinafter the "Council") carried out during the reporting period (January 2017 - July 2018) and main activities of the Parliament in the field of gender equality.

Achievements

The performance of the acting Council, as compared with the Council of the previous convocation, has improved with regard to working on new legislative amendments and also the gender analysis of the effective legislation;

Development of Action Plan by the Gender Equality Council.

Council's reaction to high-profile cases, manifested both in public statements, made by the Council, and in the exercise of the right to pose a question within the framework of parliamentary oversight (e.g. with regard to the assassination of the mother of 4 children in Tbilisi);

Development of methodology for gender analysis of legislative proposals and initiatives by the Council;

It was provided by Council Regulations that an employee of the Office of the Council Chairperson/Secretariat will be responsible for Council office management.

Challenges

The Council has not conducted a pilot gender analysis of 2018 State Budget, what was its commitment under the Action Plan;

A commitment under the Action Plan was not performed, specifically - the gender impact of only 2 draft laws was assessed instead of 5;

Part of legislative amendments (e.g. Labor Code, legislative initiatives conditioned by Istanbul Convention were not initiated within the framework of the commitment under the Plan.

Recommendations

Conduct of gender impact analysis of legislation should be provided by law, not as a power of Gender Council, but rather its obligation. It is reasonable to institutionally strengthen the Council for it to be fully capable of conducting a comprehensive analysis of key draft laws/reforms;

The Council should submit the methodology of monitoring of fulfillment of international and national commitments in the field of gender security to the Parliament from time to time;

The new draft Rules of Procedure of the Parliament should provide for the obligation to present information about the impact on gender equality (if it is such) to be defined as one of the components of an explanatory note;

It will be reasonable for the Council to periodically publish information about gender impact analysis of draft laws on the web page of the Parliament as well;

It is important for gender analysis of the Budget to be conducted on an annual basis;

The Council should intensify the oversight of the activities of the Government related to gender issues, give out recommendations and oversee their fulfillment.