Employees of the Special Investigation Service were trained on issues of sexual crime investigation with the support of the Council of Europe and the United Nations Women's Organization

Employees of the Special Investigation Service were trained on issues of sexual crime investigation with the support of the Council of Europe and the United Nations Women's Organization

On November 15-17, three-day training on the issues of sexual violence investigation was delivered for the employees of the Special Investigation Service. The event was organized by the Council of Europe and the United Nations Women's Organization .

The purpose of the training is to improve the knowledge and skills needed to effectively investigate sexual violence cases, ensure the use of victim-oriented and human rights-based approaches, and prepare effective cases for the production of criminal prosecution.

40 employees of the Special Investigation Service were trained, including the Heads of the Units of the Investigation Department, Investigators, Investigation Quality Assessment Specialists and the employees of the General Inspection. During the event the following vital matters were discussed:

• Understanding sexual violence crimes from a gender perspective in accordance with the Istanbul Convention, International Human Rights Law, and Criminal Law standards;

• Studying victim-oriented strategies, including their use during interviewing;

• Identifying and eliminating myths and stereotypes about sexual violence;

• The importance of revising evidentiary standards and context-based investigation;

• Analyzing specific circumstances related to vulnerable people and conducting victim-oriented and context-based investigations to obtain important evidence for criminal prosecution.

The Deputy Head of the Investigation Department of SIS, Levan Verulashvili, the Senior Project Officer of the Council of Europe Mariam Jajanidze, and the UN Women Project Analyst Tinatin Avaliani opened the event. The relevance of the mentioned issue, the importance of cooperation in terms of effective investigation of sexual violence, and the protection of human rights were emphasized.

The event took place within the framework of the Council of Europe project "Promoting an integrated approach to prevent violence against women and strengthening gender equality in Georgia" and the United Nations Joint Program (UNJP) for Gender Equality, which is implementing by the United Nations Women's Organization with the support of Sweden. The training was led by invited experts from the UN Women's Organization and the Council of Europe with the trainers of the Special Investigation Service.

The Special Investigation Service actively continues training employees to raise their capacity with the support of partner organizations.