Woman’s Sight on Democratic Processes

International Conference ‘Increasing Women’s Participation in Democratic Processes’ to open new perspectives and sum up progress of past 5 years

By Mari Kintsurashvili

International Conference ‘Increasing Women’s Participation in Democratic Processes’, which became an important milestone in a history of devoted and complicated work of women’s NGOs in Georgia, as well as a great leap towards the development of democratic processes and gender equality.

Generally, the state of woman in Georgia was always something special. This clarifies itself in ancient Georgian traditions. For only a woman could stop the battle with the gracious movement of her hand throwing white shawl, and men submitted their beautiful and pure strength. Woman – the hearth keeper – was always honored. Georgian dances, which are generally accepted as cosmic 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 the great poet berhymed it in his masterpiece in the image of Queen Tamar.

But much water has flowed under the bridges since the glorious reign of the great Queen; much has changed, including the status of woman and her role in social building, politics and other spheres of life, and not necessarily the case for the better direction. Certainly, Georgia made up the commitments in Women’s conditions improvement sphere. But we’ve still face incontestable fact - further integration of Georgia in Europe needs more effort in gender mainstreaming. For, as a member of the CoE, Georgia has a tremendous work to do in order to accomplish CoE standards in gender equality field. The process of improvement started in 1994, when Georgia joined Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Then at 1995 Beijing Conference Georgia joined the countries that agreed to work out national working plan of women’s status improvement.

As the Georgian Women NGO Coalition’s web site says, having studied and analyzed the existed situation and the demands, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) designed a strategy aimed at uniting the women’s NGOs in Georgia and ultimately supporting their development and viability.

So in 2000 Coalition of Women’s NGOs was launched and 30 organizations joint forces to promote women’s rights and status through a concerted action and coordination. The special program was led by Ms. Tiina Ilsen, Gender Advisor, Gender Unit, ODIHR/OSCE. ‘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 can provide equal opportunities for men and women can be regarded as democratic,’ - she states in her article for the information bulletin of Coalition.

The International Conference ‘Increasing Women’s Participation in Democratic Processes’, which coincided with its 5-year jubilee, summed up not only the history of Coalition, but also the dynamic of Georgian Women movement as the whole – its tendencies, achievements and failures. Two-day forum gathered not only the members of the Coalition, but also representatives of government, non-governmental sector, leaders of public associations and political parties, representatives of international organizations and foreign guests.

The Conference was opened by Ms. Tiina Ilsen, Gender Advisor, OSCE/ODIHR Democratization Department, Ms. Tamar Beruchashvili, Deputy Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration; Chair of the Government Commission for Gender Equality and
Ms. Neli Javakhishvili, a member of Women’s NGO Coalition of Georgia, NGO Georgian Foundation.

After opening the plenary session as a moderator Tamar Beruashvili gave the floor for the greeting speech to Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia Ms. Nino Burjanadze, who mentioned importance of the Women’s NGO Coalition’s activity in Georgia. She stated that she doesn’t support the artificial quotas, as they can become the reason of positive discrimination. To avoid this community should have more proper examples of gender equality.

‘Gender equality, certainly, doesn’t mean that the Chairman of the Parliament is a woman. It means that we should try our best to make women and men equally represented at all levels, - said Burjanadze in her conversation with media, - We aren’t talking about feminist movement, that a definite number of women should be represented in political or social life. The point is that the measures should be taken not only at the legislative level, but to make everything really possible for every person to have opportunity to use his or her possibilities to the maximum and effectively get involved into social life.’

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

The Conference lasted for two days and dwelled upon the most problematic aspects of women’s lives. Its program included discussions on such painful issues as conflicts resolution, peacebuilding and women’s role in this process. Discussion participants spoke about the tools and mechanisms that strengthen women’s abilities in the social-political life. The discussion on the possibilities of cooperation within women’s movement, on networking, on coalitions and unions also took place. There were three main working sessions: ‘Building Effective National Mechanisms for increasing women’s participation in democratization processes’; ‘Women, Conflict Resolution and Security’ and ‘Development of unified platforms through networking and coalition building among women’s organizations’. All of these topics are very actual in Georgia and dwell upon the most burning problems.

Conflict Resolution is a very painful issue for most of the Georgians, and woman’s sight of this problem and its solution is really important and efficient. Manana Mebuke, one of the speakers of Conflict Resolution and Security session represents Women’s NGO Coalition, NGO Wives of Disabled and Deceased Soldiers and is a member of Coordination Council of the Regional South Caucasus coalition “Women for Peace”. In her interview to the GT, Manana Mebuke said: “On the non-governmental level women are actively involved in peacebuilding process; they visit conflict zones and work out joint recommendations to find the most positive ways out. But on the governmental level, women can’t take active part in these processes. Holding such conferences help us understand all our complications as well as sum up our achievements.”

Reet Laja and Lena Blum, experts of ODIHR OSCE, Round Table of Women’s NGOs of Estonia, shared their impressions: ‘For years of the Coalition’s existence, we had an opportunity to work with Georgian women for so many times, that we have become very close to each other. Collaboration of our two national unions is a unique experience; it is a wonderful initiative of ODIHR OSCE, that gave a chance for both sides to be developed. In Tallinn, our women still remember the visit of the Georgian Coalition that took place 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, that continues development right now. After one year, we hosted not only Georgian women (Coalition’s regional network) but colleagues from Kyrgyzstan as well. Gender program of ODIHR OSCE is very consistent in the policy of regional integration, and it is very correct and clear–sighted.’

According to Ms. Tiina Ilsen, ‘true democracy can exist only in such society, were representatives of all spheres of life take responsibility. This became one of the key themes to start the cooperation of OSCE with Georgia in the gender equality direction. Taking in account the women’s interests and demands on all levels of decision making, the women’s rights defence and gender equality shall become the social norm, because an undivided element of the democratic structure is the gender equality of rights.’

Active cooperation between participants, speakers and guests, representatives of government and public sector made for the successful sum total of the Conference and defined the ways of effective future development of democratic processes in gender issues.