In Kutaisi, in the office of Fund "Sukhumi" was
held a meeting of the representatives of the Women's League from eight towns of
Western Georgia (Kutaisi, Tskhaltubo, Khoni, Khobi, Ozurgeti, Poti, Batumi, and
Zugdidi).
Participants of the meeting elaborated a Platform of the
Women's league. The main objective of the League - consolidation and
unification of efforts of women to achieve equal opportunities for their participation
in all decision-making structures, strengthening of gender equality principles
in building a democratic state.
The basic principle of the Platform for Action is
protecting of women's rights, empowerment and achieving of gender equality.
The goals of the Platform for Action: ensuring the
implementation of measures to increase the impact of Women's League in Western
Georgia, expanding of dialogue with local authorities, identification and
impact on solution of problems of local people in 8 towns of Western Georgia, influencing
the increase of civic participation of women-voters in the parliamentary
elections of 2012.
At the network
meeting there were identified strategic goals of the women's leagues:
1. Increasing the level of women – voters’
participation in the parliamentary elections by 20% compared with the previous
parliamentary elections;
2. Achieve the level of women-members of parliament -
at least 30%;
3. The issue of free childbirth for women, the average
level of economic provision;
4. Preparation of proposals on the establishment of
penalties for perpetrators to make amendments to the law on domestic violence;
5. Achieve 50% of women’s participation formal
negotiation process;
6. Achieve 35% of women in local authorities.
Participants listened to the moderators’ information about
the work of the Club of Women-Voters. According to them a lot of problems have
been solved (in the village Pirveli Khorga of Khobi District rehabilitation of
bridges was accelerated, in Khoni socially vulnerable populations and IDPs from
Abkhazia were exempted from payment of utility bills for water and electricity
supply) as a result of cooperation with local government and media.
At the end of the meeting emphasis was placed on the
importance of collaboration - networking of the Women’s League. They planned to
conduct many contests, exhibitions ad excursions.
The project is implemented with the support of the
organization NED – National Endowment for Democracy, USA.
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