Georgia amends 7 laws to protect neglected children

Georgia makes an effort to better protect the rights of homeless children.

The Government has approved a package of legislative changes aimed to end violence against street children and increase their protection.

The legislative package was presented by Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani. She said the reform would "help us get children off the streets”.

Before introducing the amendments, she talked about what disadvantages the current legislation had.

She said the current Georgian law did not define who exactly street children were and what criteria a child needed to meet to be given this status.

• Tsulukiani said, for the first time in Georgia, law would define the term of "child in need”, which would let relevant services protect not only orphans and homeless children but also neglected children.

The Minister said under the current legislation, only parents or a legal guardian had the right to organise the child’s documents. This meant most of street children did not have identity documents and could not go to school or benefit from the state’s social and medical programs.

• Under the new regulations, the Social Service Agency will be empowered to appeal to the Justice Ministry’s Public Service Development Agency to prepare documents for a homeless/neglected child. The ID documents will be delivered free of charge to street children and they will be able to get education and enjoy different state programs.

Meanwhile under the current law, children are only protected from violent family members/legal guardians; however, sometimes it’s hard to say who exactly is violent against a street child. To correct this, the new regulations will also involve the term "any other person”, meaning social workers will be empowered to separate a child from their violent family members, guardians or any other person who violated the child’s rights.

The legislative package will see seven Georgian laws be amended. 

The package of the legislative changes was created with collaboration between all relevant Ministries and state agencies, global experts and international; children rights organisations including UNICEF.