Tbilisi hosts Women in Policing international conference

The Georgian capital city of Tbilisi hosted the sixth annual ‘Women in Policing’ international conference earlier today. 

The event was held in the scope of cooperation between the Georgian Interior Ministry and the US Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).

This year’s Women in Policing conference ran over the past four days and was the largest ever, attended by up to 300 female police officers from 18 countries.

Photo: State Security Service of Georgia.

The conference was opened by Ian Kelly, US Ambassador to Georgia and Giorgi Mghebrishvili, Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia.

Ambassador Kelly announced that in honour of Georgian Police Officer Maia Javakhishvili who was killed in the line of duty in December 2015, the US Embassy in Tbilisi has established an award to recognise devoted female police officers.

"I think this conference has really two main goals. The most important goal is to help empower women to become leaders in their own community and of course, police officers have the first contact that people have with their government and it’s important, that the government reflects the gender balance in the country”, Kelly said.

"But I think, another reason, why this conference is so important is, because we think that Georgia presents a really good model in terms of democratic governance, of democratic policing. And so I’m very pleased to see law enforcement representatives from Central Europe to East Asia, over 300 police officers, women police officers here and I think it’s just a real emblematic of Georgia as a model for democratic policing”.

The purpose of this conference is to empower, inspire and educate women police officers with specifically tailored training on leadership and professional development skills essential to advancing in their careers and maximising their contributions to their profession.