Building victim-survivor-centred approaches to sexual harassment in Georgia and beyond
Working with cross sector partners on a check in before our 3 day training on using a survivor-centred and trauma-informed approach to sexual harassment investigations. As you can see, even where topics are sensitive, we can smile, come from a place of love and learning, and connect.
Over the course of 4 years, I have been working with UN Women partners in the republic of Georgia, developing sexual and gender-based harassment policies and reporting mechanisms, designing and delivering trainings and coaching to raise awareness, building capacity on how to receive reports with empathy and respect, and investigate cases using an approach centred on victims-survivors, while introducing partners to a participatory, and human centred approach to training.
UN Women interventions related to sexual harassment work in Georgia and contributed to the development of protocols for the gender-sensitive investigation of sexual harassment cases for civil society organizations (CSOs), public sector, academic institutions and private companies based on international best practices, as well as local expertise and capacities around victim-survivor-centric and trauma informed approaches in the investigation of sexual harassment cases.
I had the pleasure of supporting the Ministry of Defence of Georgia improve their internal sexual harassment complaints’ mechanism and its investigation processes, as well as working closely with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia to assist them to develop leadership buy-in to introduce a sexual harassment complaints’ mechanism. I developed a tailor-made training course and subsequently conducted multiple day trainings on sexual harassment for the representatives of Ministry of Defence of Georgia, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, as well as the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia to provide support in filling the gaps in the sexual harassment case-handling practices. The key results of this intervention are as follows:
- Support was rendered to national partners in the improvement of sexual harassment mechanisms in the workplace, as well as investigation of sexual harassment cases using an approach centred on the victims/survivors.
- Support was provided to set up or further develop internal sexual harassment investigation commissions and to develop the capacities of their members to conduct victim/survivor-centred investigations.
- Draft protocols for sexual harassment investigations were prepared and shared with respective units and departments.
- Recommendations were provided to the Prime Minister’s Advisor on Human Rights and Gender Equality and the Chair of the Inter-Agency Commission on Gender Equality, Violence against Women and Domestic Violence on the institutionalization of sexual harassment in the public sector, the development of protocols and mechanisms for sexual harassment investigations, and the overall organizational strategy on sexual harassment prevention. I issued specific recommendations to be followed by the Inter-Agency Commission to provide necessary guidance and improve coordination on sexual harassment among the public institutions and beyond.
- The results spanned cross sector, including other public sector representatives such as Georgian Farmers’ Association, Enterprise Georgia, Georgia's Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA), Maritime Transport Agency of Georgia, Tbilisi Transport Company, as well as with human rights NGOs on mechanisms for staff as well as their obligations to beneficiaries, media (Mtavari TV), and academia (Tbilisi State University), which subsequently led to the adoption of the sexual harassment mechanisms and their investigation protocols in a number of cases.
- See an article here! https://georgia.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/01/effective-investigat...
- More recently, senior security partner officials from the Ministries of the Interior and Defense were provided with additional training to bolster their mechanisms and better understand how to develop victim-survivor-centred responses in command-control environments, and identify specific ways to overcome barriers for victims-survivors to come forward in these environments. See here! https://georgia.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2021/06/un-women-continues-s...
- I am proud to share that this has resulted in achieving tangible results including increased awareness of sexual harassment as a form of violence against women that organizations must address, and has resulted in the advancement of work towards effective sexual harassment policy and procedures and overall improvement of the practice in the country and beyond as practices ripple out and shared with other countries in UN Women and beyond!
