Interior Ministry launches information campaign against child marriage
Entitled Do not Take Childhood Away, the initiative aims to eliminate child marriage and increase awareness about the availability and reliability of the police to react to relevant cases in a timely manner, the state body announced. Photo: police.ge.
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The Georgian Interior Ministry has launched an information campaign against child marriage in partnership with the local office of the United Nations Population Fund, the Ministry said on Wednesday.
Entitled Do not Take Childhood Away, the initiative aims to eliminate child marriage and increase awareness about the availability and reliability of the police to react to relevant cases in a timely manner, the state body announced.
Within the programme, representatives of the Ministry have handed out booklets in Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani languages to communities across the country, sharing information on the goals of the campaign.
Expected to run for a month with events in capital Tbilisi and other regions of the country, the project is supported by the UNFPA as part of the UN programme for gender equality.
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.
The Georgian Interior Ministry launched investigations into 175 cases of early marriages in 2019, just five cases less than in 2018.
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.
The old fashioned norm of arranged or forced marriages could soon become a illegal if changes to Georgian law are approved, resulting in a maximum penalty of four years imprisonment.
Georgian law enforcers have arrested two individuals for kidnapping a young woman in Georgia’s eastern Marneuli municipality, the Interior Ministry announced on Thursday.
Georgian law enforcers have arrested two individuals for kidnapping a minor in eastern Georgia’s Marneuli municipality, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Thursday.
Georgian law enforcers have arrested four individuals for kidnapping a minor in Georgia’s capital city of Tbilisi, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Sunday.
The United Nations in Georgia on Wednesday sent its condolences on the murder of a 14-year-old girl in eastern Georgia’s Sagarejo municipality on October 6 and called for a “prompt and thorough investigation“ into the case.
The Prosecutor General's Office of Georgia on Wednesday announced law enforcement officers had arrested the uncle of a 14-year-old girl who was murdered on October 6 in eastern Georgia’s Sagarejo municipality by a man who had reportedly kidnapped her, while authorities also filed charges against the mother of the victim.
The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia on Thursday said it had charged a woman for her 14-year-old daughter into a forced marriage in the Marneuli municipality of eastern Georgia.
The United Nations Population Fund on Friday held a meeting discussing the importance of accelerating national commitments to eliminate the practice of child marriage in Georgia through empowering adolescents and creating opportunities for their development.