On November 16-18, 2020, Maia Gedevanishvili, Head of the Department of the Rights of the Child of the Public Defender's Office, participated in the General Assembly and 24th Conference of the European Networkof Ombudspersons forChildren (ENOC). This year the online event was hosted by the Childrenand Young People'sCommissioner of Scotland.

The main theme of the conference was the development of the childs rights impact assessment (CRIA) mechanism by the member states at legislative and executive levels.

At the opening of the conference, Najat Maalla M'jid, UN Special Representative on Violence against Children, Afshan Khan, UNICEFRegional Director for Europe and Central Asia, and Saskia Bricmont, Co-Chairof the European Parliament Intergroup onChildren's Rights, stressed the need for the unwavering introduction of children's rights both at the legislative and executive level, and especially at the municipal level.

According to the European ombudsmen, the CRIA mechanism should be introduced by all countries and a legal mandate should be developed for its implementation at the national level. There should be no sphere of activity where the interests of the child and consequently the rights of the child are not taken into account.

Experts made presentations, shared best practices and experiences at the conference.

On November 18, the ENOC Annual General Assembly approved the new composition of the Network Bureau, elected the chairperson (representative of the Greek Ombudsman) and endorsed the position statement on CRIA, a practical tool on how to implement CRIA and the amendments to the statute of the Network.

The Department of the Rights of the Child of the Public Defender of Georgia, together with the European Networkof Ombudspersons forChildren, as well as various institutions of European ombudsmen, actively implements the national and international events and projects in the field of protection of children's rights.