Åsa Regnér, UN Women Deputy Executive Director, and Alia El-Yassir, UN Women Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, make first official visit to Georgia

From 23 to 25 May, Åsa Regnér, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, and Alia El-Yassir, Director of the UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, paid their first official visit to Georgia. The purpose of the visit was to become acquainted with and deepen the long-term cooperation that connects UN Women with the country’s legislative and executive branches in a variety of directions.

Representatives of UN Women met with the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili, and the Chairperson of the Gender Equality Council of the Parliament, Nino Tsilosani. The parties reaffirmed existing and future areas of cooperation. Mr. Papuashvili discussed the steps taken by Georgia in the direction of gender equality and underlined the importance of the Gender Equality Concept that will be adopted in the near future, as well as the introduction of gender quotas and a gender impact assessment tool in the Parliament. Ms. Regnér expressed readiness to further support Georgia, noting that the country already has experience and concrete examples that are important also for the global discussions.

The visit continued with a meeting of UN Women representatives with the President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili. The purpose of the meeting was to support UN Women in implementing the policies on the gender equality and women’s empowerment principles and to highlight the President’s contribution in this regard. “I met with Åsa Regnér, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women—the representative of an organization that works on gender-based violence issues around the world,” the Georgian president said on her official Twitter page after the meeting. “What we need is a new approach on domestic violence, a new strategy that will eliminate femicide once and for all.”

During the visit, Ms. Regnér and Ms. El-Yassir, together with the local leadership of UN Women, also met with the Head of the Administration of the Government of Georgia, Revaz Javelidze. The meeting was also attended by Niko Tatulashvili, Advisor to the Prime Minister of Georgia on Human Rights and Head of the Inter-Agency Commission on Gender Equality, Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, and Maka Peradze, Head of the Human Rights Secretariat.

The parties discussed the areas of cooperation between UN Women and the Government of Georgia and the importance of supporting ongoing projects. Talks focused on such issues as the integration of a gender perspective into the good governance reform process, the sustainable and effective functioning of the national institutional mechanisms for women’s empowerment and gender equality, and the process of developing the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights. The representatives of the Government of Georgia underlined the important role of UN Women in the process of developing the National Action Plan for the Implementation of the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security, as well as the National Action Plan on Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence and Measures to be Implemented for the Protection of Victims (Survivors).

The official visit of Ms. Regnér and Ms. El-Yassir to Georgia was concluded on 25 May 2022.