UN in Georgia: safety of children placed in care settings should be monitored by national institutions
The UN in Georgia recommends the creation of an appropriate mechanism to oversee the constitutionalization process in line with international standards to ensure that children’s well-being and rights are fully guaranteed. Photo: video grab.
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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.
????????The United Nations Country Team in Georgia condemns any form of violence and other abuses against #Children and calls for greater protection for children and #deinstitutionalization.
— UN in Georgia (@ungeorgia) June 11, 2021
Read the full statement: https://t.co/J7fCT0lqYi
Earlier in June Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria 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.
- Interior Ministry: several minors from Patriarchate’s boarding school have already been interrogated
The UN in Georgia says that limiting a constitutional entity, such as the Public Defender’s Office, in implementing its mandate contradicts Georgia’s aspirations and obligations towards human rights and ensuring the rule of law.
We [UN in Georgia] note the judicial decision to remove children with disabilities from the Ninotsminda boarding school to their biological families, foster care or small group homes… Considering the best interest of a child, we urge all actors to respect the right of all children and their families to privacy at all stages of the constitutionalization process in line with Article 16 of the Convention”, reads the statement.
The UN in Georgia recommends the creation of an appropriate mechanism to oversee the constitutionalization process in line with international standards to ensure that children’s well-being and rights are fully guaranteed.
Another recommendation of the organisation is to create a case management team of social workers and health professionals, including psychologists and therapists, to support the development and implementation of individual case management plans so that children are fully supported throughout this process.
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?’
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.
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.
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 Childrens’ 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.
Ombudswoman Nino Lomjaria has visited the Patriarchate’s Ninotsminda boarding school for the first time since 2018 earlier today, following accusations of physical and sexual abuse at the facility.