Women’s Views on Democratic Processes
By: Mari Kintsurashvili

July 5, 2006 – (The Georgian Times) An International Conference called ‘Increasing Women’s Participation in Democratic Processes’, held recently in Tbilisi, has been acknowledged as an important milestone in the history of women’s work in NGOs in Georgia, as well as a great leap towards the development of democratic processes and gender equality.

Generally, women’s roles in Georgia have always been something special. This can be seen in ancient Georgian traditions, for only a woman could stop a battle with the gracious movement of her hand throwing white shawl. Woman – the hearth keeper – was always honoured. Georgian dances show the real grace and beauty of Georgian women. Some noble royalty is felt in their movements and glances. This royalty of the beautiful representatives of the Land of Rustaveli comes from the old times and Georgia’s great poet ta Rustaveli devoted passages to it in his masterpiece in the image of Queen Tamar.

But much water has flowed under the bridge since the glorious reign of the great Queen; much has changed, including women’s status and roles in social building, politics and other spheres of life, and not necessarily for the better. Certainly, Georgia has committed to improving Women’s conditions. But we still face an incontestable fact – Georgia’s further integration into Europe needs more effort towards gender mainstreaming. As a member of the Council of Europe (CoE), Georgia has tremendous work to do in order to meet CoE standards of gender equality.

The process of improvement started in 1994, when Georgia joined the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Then at the 1995 Beijing Conference Georgia joined other co ies that agreed to develop a national working plan to improve women’s status. As the Georgian Women NGO Coalition’s web site says, after studying and analysing the existing situation and demands, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) designed a strat to unite women’s NGOs in Georgia and support their development and viability.

In 2000 the Coalition of Women’s NGOs was launched and 30 organizations joined forces to promote women’s rights and status through concerted action and coordination. The special program was led by Tiina Ilsen, Gender Advisor, Gender Unit, ODIHR/OSCE. In her article for the information bulletin of Coalition she states, ‘We change community from the inside, for only equal opportunities make it truly democratic. We work at the high-grade change of the society, which we live in. For only community, which provide equal opportunities for men and women can be regarded as democratic’.

The International Conference ‘Increasing Women’s Participation in Democratic Processes’, which coincided with the coalition’s 5-year jubilee, summed up the coalition’s history as well as the dynamic of the Georgian women’s movement on the whole – its tendencies, achievements and failures. The two-day forum gathered members of the Coalition, representatives of the governmental and non-governmental sectors, leaders of public associations and litical parties, representatives of international organizations and foreign guests.

Ilsen opened the conference together with Tamar Beruchashvili, Deputy Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Chair of the Government Commission for Gender Equality; and Neli Javakhishvili, a member of the Women’s NGO Coalition of Georgia, NGO Georgian Foundation. After opening the plenary session as moderator, Beruchashvili gave the floor for the greeting speech to Georgian Parliamentary Chair Nino Burjanadze, who mentioned the importance of the Women’s NGO Coalition’s activity in Georgia. Burjanadze stated that she didn’t support artificial quotas, as they could lead to positive discrimination. To avoid this, she said, the community should have more proper examples of gender equality. Burjanadze commented for the media:‘Gender equality certainly doesn’t mean that the Chairman of the Parliament must be a woman. It means that we should try our best to make women and men equally represented at all levels. We aren’t talking about a feminist movement, or that a definite number of women should be represented in political or social life. The point is that measures should be taken at the legislative level and also to make everything really possible for every person to have opportunity to explore his er possibilities to the maximum and effectively get involved in social life’.

Burjanadze also told GT, ‘I am very glad that this Conference took place, and we’ll make serious steps to help our country reveal its best traditions in the international community. I think that Georgia has taken the right course to solve ge problems, but certainly a lot of work remains to be done in this direction’.

The conference lasted for two days and focused on the most problematic aspects of women’s lives, including discussions on conflict resolution, peace building, and women’s role in these processes. Discussion participants spoke about the tools and mechanisms that strengthen women’s abilities in social-political life. There were also discussion on the possibilities of cooperation within women’s movement, on networking, on coalitions and unions. There were three main working sessions: ‘Building Effective National Mechanisms to Increase Women’s Participation in Democratisation Processes’; ‘Women, Conflict Resolution and Security’ and ‘Development of Unified Platforms Through Networking and Coalition Building Among Women’s Organizations’. All hese topics are very pertinent in Georgia and dwell upon the most burning problems.

Conflict Resolution is a very painful issue for most Georgians, and women’s views of this are very important. Manana Mebuke, one of the speakers for the Conflict Resolution and Security session, represents the Women’s NGO Coalition, NGO Wives of Disabled and Deceased Soldiers and is a member of the Coordination Council of the Regional South Caucasus coalition ‘Women for Peace’. In conversation with GT, she said: ‘On the non-governmental level women are actively involved in the peace building process; they visit conflict zones and work out joint recommendations to find the most positive solutions. But on the governmental level, women can’t take active part in these processes. Holding such confere help us to understand all our complications and to sum up our achievements’.

Reet Laja and Lena Blum, experts from ODIHR OSCE, the Round Table of Women’s NGOs of Estonia, shared their impressions: ‘In the years since the Coalition was established, we have had opportunity to work with Georgian women so many times that we have become very close to each other. Collaboration between our two national unions is a unique experience; it is a wonderful initiative of ODIHR OSCE that has given a chance for both sides to develop. In Tallinn, our women still remember the Georgian Coalition’s visit in December 2004, and we know from our Georgian friends that the visit was unforgettable for them, as well. Back then the two unions agreed on future cooperation, which continues to develop even now. A year later we hosted Georgian women (Coalition’s regional network) as well as colleagues from Kyrgyzstan. The Gender program of ODIHR OSCE is very consistent in the icy of regional integration, and it is very correct and clear–sighted’.

According to Ilsen, ‘True democracy can exist only in a society where representatives from all spheres of life take responsibility. This has become one of the key themes for cooperation between OSCE and Georgia in gender equality. Considering women’s interests and demands on all levels of decision-making, defence of women’s rights and gender equality shall become the social norm, because an undivided element of democratic structure is gender equality and rights’. Active cooperation among participants, speakers and guests, representatives of the governmental and public sectors made the Conference an overall success and defin he path for effective future development of democratic processes in gender issues.

From: http://www.geotimes.ge/index.php?m=home&newsid=697