Civic activists, NGOs to protest barring of inspectors in Ninotsminda boarding school
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Georgian civic activists and NGOs have plans to gather at the administration building of the government of Georgia at 6 p.m. today, on International Children's Day, to protest the decision of the leadership of Ninotsminda boarding school in eastern Georgia not to allow inspectors, including the country’s ombudsperson, to carry out monitoring there.
NGOs and the public defender have expressed the suspicion for almost a year that the children in the boarding school, which is subordinated to the Georgian patriarchate, may be victims of violence.
They have called for the closure of all large boarding schools in the country, stating that children's rights are mostly ignored in such facilities.
The archbishop of Skhalta Spiridon, who administers the facility, has accused Public Defender Nino Lomjaria of ‘anti-Christian activities’ and stated that inspectors will not be allowed into the boarding school.
Archbishop Spiridon says that the people who have anti-Christian attitudes have nothing to do with the children of the boarding school.
I will not allow them to touch my children. These are the people who protect and support the LGBT community and same-sex marriage,” Spiridon said.
A social worker visited the boarding school for the last time in June 2020.
On May 19, 2021, representatives of the Public Defender of Georgia paid a visit to the Ninotsminda children's boarding school.
However, despite the calls of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, they were still not allowed to conduct monitoring.
Lomajaria says that her office ‘has repeatedly appealed’ to the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs and LEPL Agency for State Care and Assistance for Victims of Trafficking,’ but they do not have timely or effective communication with the Public Defender's Office and no effective measures have been taken to protect the rights and interests of the beneficiaries of the boarding school yet.’
Currently there are 57 children in the boarding school. The youngest one is five-year-old.
Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria has stated that the country’s Prosecutor’s Office is investigating several cases of violence in the Patriarchate’s Ninotsminda boarding school where top clerics have not allowed inspectors to conduct mandatory monitoring.
Six children living in a boarding school run by the Georgian Patriarchate and which is suspected of inflicting physical and psychological violence on its wards say they would like to leave the institution ‘to live closer to Tbilisi’, the Agency for Social Care and Assistance for Victims of Trafficking said yesterday.
Civic activist Giga Makarashvili says that a law enforcer broke his hand during a rally at the country’s Prosecutor’s Office yesterday.
Sixteen children have expressed the desire to leave the Patriarchate’s Ninotsminda boarding school, the Agency for State Care and Assistance for the Victims of Human Trafficking has reported. The state agency, which entered the boarding school earlier this week, said that six children have already been placed in a different facility amid allegations of violence in the school.
Several minors from the Patriarchate’s boarding school in Ninotsminda have already been interrogated following allegations of violence in the school, reports the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia (MIA).
A total of 11 minors, including one with disabilities, have been removed from the Patriarchate’s boarding school in Ninotsminda amid allegations of violence. The Health Ministry announced earlier today that its State Care Agency, which deals with the most vulnerable groups in Georgia, will ensure the selection of an alternative form of care for the children.
UNICEF Georgia (United Children’s Emergency Fund) says it is ready to support the Georgian government in moving children from Ninotsminda boarding school to family and community-based care amidst allegations of physical and sexual abuse.
Civic activists have thrown hundreds of leaflets at MPs during a session in parliament with the caption ‘What is happening in the Ninotsminda boarding house?’
Safety, well-being, exercise of rights by and development of any child placed in care settings should be thoroughly monitored by national institutions, including by the Public Defender’s Office, reads the United Nations Country Team in Georgia responding to recent incidents in a Patriarchate’s boarding house in Ninotsminda.
Twenty employees have been dismissed from Patriarchate’s Ninotsminda boarding school which is suspected of inflicting physical and psychological violence on its wards.