IDFI's Policy Paper on Challenges Facing the Prosecution Service in Criminal Proceedings of Crimes Committed with Discriminatory Motive

News | Rule of Law, Human Rights and Freedom of Media | Policy Document 15 May 2020

Hate crime as well as domestic offence or domestic violence and violence against women is a universal reality for every society and is a complex problem widespread in the world with devastating results not only for victims but for the society as a whole due to its specific character and social threat.

Approximately one third of the female population (35%) in the world has at least once been a victim of the violence. The statistics are even more alarming considering the fact that this form of violence is characterized by secrecy and, in some cases, because of silence, stigma or other factors, is not revealed. Domestic violence was one of the most widespread crimes in Georgia in 2018-2019. A significant segment of the victims (88%) were women. Although the indicator of launching prosecution on hate crimes has increased in 2018 compared to previous years, the indicator of prosecution launched on possible hate crime committed by law enforcement officers is still low. In addition, majority of the hate crime victims (sexual minorities) indicate to the facts of violence by the law enforcement officers, improper respond and homophobic attitudes.

Based on the abovementioned, fighting the hate crime, domestic violence and violence against women is one of the priorities for both the Government and Prosecution Service of Georgia (PSG). Despite the number of activities carried out to prevent these crimes during the past years, the situation analysis and evaluation by the international and local organizations show that the Prosecution Service of Georgia is still facing the challenge of an efficient and comprehensive prosecution of the crimes of the category.

It is difficult for the prosecutors to identify the gender discrimination motive in case of crimes of violence against women and domestic violence. In majority of cases, they are not sufficiently informed on respond standards and special approaches to gender based crimes, which represents a gap in justice on one hand and is a barrier in protecting the rights of the victims of the crime of the type on the other.

Based on the abovementioned, study and analysis of the prosecution and court response, as well as of the practice, is necessary for the respective agencies to be able to plan and implement the policy in this direction. Thus, the goal of the policy paper is to identify the challenges based on the outcomes of the court proceedings on the cases of hate crime, domestic offence, domestic violence and violence against women and to elaborate recommendations to eliminate gaps based on the analysis of the monitoring results.