Georgia’s failure to investigate and prosecute gender and honor-based violence against a woman who was badly beaten by family members in front of her young children contributed to her death, the UN Women’s Rights Committee found.
In the views released today, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) lamented both the failure of the Georgian authorities to arrest and prosecute family members who senselessly beat the victim Khanum Jeiranova, and their decision to return them to her Relatives. She was then found dead.
The committee released its findings after considering a complaint from Jeiranova’s two children, who were 11 and 7 years old, when their mother died.
Jeiranova, an ethnic Azerbaijani woman and Georgian national, was accused by her husband’s relatives of having an extramarital affair. On September 16, 2014, she was surrounded by three relatives of her husband, dragged through the village, and beaten so hard that she passed out several times.
That night, the village governor and police officers were called to the victim’s father’s house, where they saw her crying and begging for help when her family members wanted her to take a jar of rat poison. They did not make arrests or send them to the hospital. The village governor took her for the night but brought her back to her mother the next morning. One day later, Jeiranova’s mother found her dead, her body hanging on a rope in the summer house.
The mullahs who dissected Jeiranova’s body said her clothing was covered in blood and that her body was “beaten to a pulp” according to testimony.
However, the police did not conduct a forensic examination of the location after the family refused to do so.
A preliminary investigation was launched but quickly dismissed, and prosecutors concluded that the victim had committed suicide because of what she described as “shameful” and “voluntary” behavior.
“Ms. Jeiranova suffered discrimination based on ethnicity and stereotypical attitudes by the police and judicial authorities,” said Genoveva Tisheva, member of the committee.
“If the Georgian authorities had adequately protected Ms. Jeiranova from the gender-based violence inflicted on her, she would be alive today,” she added.
The committee found that Georgia had not provided effective protection and had not taken all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against Jeiranova. It also concluded that Georgia had breached its obligation to identify and punish those responsible for the attack on the victim and his death.
The Committee urged Georgia to immediately conduct a thorough and independent investigation into Jeiranova’s death and to pursue it responsibly. It called on Georgia to provide adequate redress, including adequate compensation, as well as an official apology for Ms. Jeiranova’s children. It called on George to ensure that all laws, policies, and policies that address domestic violence include honor-based violence. He also called on the State party to step up measures to ensure women’s right to life and freedom from torture, with particular attention to isolated, closed communities where honor-based norms apply.
