Dual Vulnerability and Security – A Research on Ethnic Minority Women’s (in)security in Georgia.

Ethnic minority women (EMW) in Georgia experience a variety of identity-based dual discriminations due to their gender and ethnicity, which represents a major source of insecurity. EMW are more vulnerable across all aspects of the human security framework: economic security, health security, food security, physical security, and political security. Language and socio-cultural barriers combined with patriarchal malpractices put them at greater risk of human rights abuses and limit their access to services. Furthermore, lack of trust in state institutions and lack of perceived support pose additional obstacles to resisting insecurity.

Based on the research findings, this study advocates for greater incorporation of gender perspectives into human security as an epistemological perspective in security analysis both at a conceptual and practical level. Due to their dual vulnerability – gender-based and ethnicity-based – it is precisely through an intersectional approach that ethnic minority women’s (in)security can be captured and addressed. To counter these insecurities, policymakers need to advance a more gender-sensitive understanding, with an emphasis on gender-based violence and areas traditionally seen as gender-neutral, such as transportation and public infrastructure. Furthermore, the study problematized the common approach that depicts ethnic minority women as disempowered victims instead of seeking for their voices and resistance. Only by capturing their agency, it will be possible to broaden the scope of security analysis and develop a genuinely inclusive security agenda. This approach would contribute to overcoming a dichotomous understanding of ethnic minorities as threats or vulnerable subjects with no agency and allow their empowerment through (in)security contestation.

In conclusion of their study, the authors formulate a large number of concrete recommendations for governmental institutions on how to include EMW into a more inclusive security discourse in Georgia.