The HELP course on Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence was launched in Tbilisi for a mixed group of 20 prosecutors and investigators on 4 March 2019. This is the third Georgian edition of the course being launched for the legal professionals in the country.

This course was launched under the Council of Europe Project "Preventing and Combating Violence against Women in Georgia", in cooperation with the General Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia.

The launching event was opened by Salome Shengelia, Head of the Human Rights Unit of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia and national HELP tutor, Natia Mezvrishvili, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, and Vahagn Muradyan, Deputy Head of Office of the Council of Europe in Tbilisi.

After the general HELP presentation, an overview of the actions undertaken by the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to tackle violence against women and domestic violence was provided by Salome Shengelia and by Londa Toloraia, Head of Department of Human Rights Protection, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, respectively.

The HELP course on Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence was developed in 2017, jointly by the Council of Europe Gender Equality Division and the HELP Programme. It covers in an interactive way the key concepts, the international and European legal framework and case law governing the prevention and protection of women and girls from violence, focusing in particular on the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention). Furthermore, the course provides the legal professionals with practical tools for dealing with cases of violence against women and domestic violence with respect to a human rights and victim centred approach.

 HELP course: Violence against women and domestic violence available in 8 languages