The Public Defender delivered a speech at the 34^th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 8, 2017, where the topic of discussion was the report of Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, about his visit to Georgia.

In his speech, the Public Defender emphasized the steps taken by the Government of Georgia in terms of protection of child's rights and positively evaluated the legislative changes, though he noted that it is necessary to strengthen the enforcement mechanism of the existing regulations and to improve the capacities of the responsible agencies.

The Public Defender spoke about the identification of and timely and effective response to the cases of child abuse and early marriage. According to him, specialists working with children, unfortunately, do not possess necessary skills to prevent violence or necessary knowledge to reveal juvenile victims of violence. Low level of awareness, gaps in service delivery and ineffective response mechanisms remain the main challenges in this field.

The Public Defender also reviewed in detail the issue of children living and working on the street, as well as the problems of children with disabilities, and expressed his hope that relevant institutions would take into account all recommendations of the Special Rapporteur and the country would reach a significant progress in the field of protection of child’s rights in the nearest future.