Interior Ministry launches information campaign against child marriage
"Deprived of Adolescence" by photographer Daro Sulakauri had won the Best Documentary Photo nomination of the EU Journalism Prize in Georgia in 2015. Photo:Daro Sulakauri
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The Georgian Interior Ministry has launched an information campaign against child marriage.
The presentation of the campaign was held at Rooms Hotel today, where Deputy Interior Minister Natia Mezvrishvili called on the public to immediately inform police of cases of early marriage.
We have enough resources to act in time and save minors,” Mezvrishvili said.
She highlighted the importance of education stating that minors should not be deprived of the right.
The process of handing over information booklets. Photo: Interior Ministry.
The campaign aims to eliminate child marriage and increase social awareness about the availability and reliability of the police to react to information in a timely manner.
“Do not take childhood away” is the campaign name.
Various events including meetings with regional population, local government officials, schoolchildren and teachers will be held during the campaign.
Patrol police officers will hand out information booklets to the population across the country and give out information on the campaign goals.
The campaign presentation at Rooms Hotel. Photo: Interior Ministry.
The campaign is conducted with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as part of the UN programme for gender equality.
Law enforcers are mostly informed several months after the early marriage”, the Department of Human Rights Protection of the Interior Ministry reports.
The department says the lack of social awareness is the main challenge.
Georgian photographer Daro Sulakauri's photo project 'Deprived of Adolescence' focuses on the child marriage problem in Georgia. Photo: Daro Sulakauri
The Interior Ministry launched investigations into 180 cases of child marriage in 2018.
As UNICEF says ‘child marriage is defined as a marriage of a girl or boy before the age of 18 and refers to both formal marriages and informal unions in which children under the age of 18 live with a partner as if married.’
In general, child marriage applies to both girls and boys but girls are more affected worldwide.
The Georgian Interior Ministry has exposed 110 cases of child abuse by their parents from January to May 2019. In 15 cases out of the 110, children were abused by their mothers while fathers/stepfathers were observed in the rest of the cases.
The Georgian National Statistics Office has announced that the number of marriages last year decreased by 5.6 percent compared to 2016, while 7.2 percent more couples divorced in 2017 than in 2016.
Georgia has joined in the celebration of International Day of the Girl Child with a photo exhibition „Girls from the Future". The exhibition will be open at the State Museum of Georgian Literature utill October 15.
Georgia’s Public Defender is calling for a law to ban young teenage girls from falling victim to early marriage and offer more protection and assistance to those in need.
Georgian law enforcers have detained two sisters for child abuse in the coastal region of Adjara today. Police reported that the women forced their four children (aged 6-12) to beg in the streets, systematically abused and watched them out. The sisters used the total amount earned by their children.
Former Deputy Interior Minister Natia Mezvrishvili will now be responsible for the new Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia’s public relations office, protocol and foreign relations issues.
The Georgian Interior Ministry reports that they launched investigations into 180 cases of early marriage last year, adding that law enforces were informed regarding the incidents only several months after they took place on average.
About 70 per cent of children given to state care by social workers in 2019-2020 have been subject to violence, while the remaining 30 per cent have been placed in state care due to economic factors, said Deputy Health Minister Tamar Barkalaia.