Georgian Rugby Union rep promotes gender equality at UN forum

A top Georgian Rugby Union representative is participating in a United Nations (UN) conference on gender equality, describing how the national side supports a local campaign to raise awareness of violence against women and promote gender equality.

Nodar Andguladze, a veteran national player and current social project manager of the Georgian Rugby Union, spoke at the international conference in New York this week about ways to overcome violence against women.

The conference, called Looking ahead - The place of sport for women's empowerment post-2015, was organised by the UN Women and International Olympic Committee, and was held within the UN 59^th Session on March 16 at the UN headquarters in New York.

At the conference, Andguladze told the international audience of the campaign the Georgian rugby players were currently supporting, which aimed to raise awareness of violence against women and promote gender equality in Georgia.

"It was 2010 when UN Women approached us to find a way to raise public awareness to end violence against women and girls by presenting rugby players as positive role models. When we heard about the scale of the problem and the effect it had on women, children and the society, we were shocked and we were ready to get involved in the project,” Andguladze said.

"I have two young daughters, a son, a beautiful wife, a sister, and a mother – all these females who are around me and who I love, and the thought that there is somebody out there who can do any type of harm to them is totally unacceptable for me, so this became a personal problem for me right away,” Andguladze noted.

He believed it was the duty of sportsmen (and other people of influence) who were well respected and admired by youth, to show their fans that violence in general, but particularly against women, was "totally unacceptable”.

"Rugby is a sport of respect and honour, which is based on the principles of non-violent team spirit and camaraderie,” he said.