The Public Defender of Georgia is responding to the suicide of a 16-year-old girl, the alleged reason of which was psychological violence and harassment against the juvenile. The Public Defender expresses sorrow over the tragic incident and offers sympathy to the victim’s family.

Unfortunately, timely detection of the cases of child abuse and proper support remain to be problematic. Stereotypical views, gaps in the provision of information about support services and lack of information about protection mechanisms make the cases of child abuse, especially the cases of sexual harassment and violence, covered and tabooed.

In order protect children from violence, it would be appropriate to launch a hotline accessible by any child. The hotline of the social service, which works only during working hours, cannot cover the need in this direction.

The Public Defender of Georgia noted in her parliamentary report that the rate of suicide and suicide attempt was 20% higher in 2017 in comparison with the previous year. The cases studied by the Public Defender shows that causes of suicide and suicide attempt among children include the neglect of child’s interests and delayed psychological and emotional support. Timely detection and prevention of suicide risks, including by general education institutions, is problematic.

Identification of and effective response to cyber bullying and violence is a special problem. The monitoring carried out by the Public Defender's Office in general education institutions showed that the level of consciousness of both schoolchildren and school personnel is very low and that cyber bullying is often not perceived as violence.

Media outlets should take into account child’s interests and observe ethical standards when covering issues related to children, including cases of suicide. Unfortunately, details of the child’s private life were exposed in the above-mentioned case, which represents a violation of child’s best interests.

Taking into consideration the challenges in the prevention of violence against children, as well as protection of and assistance to victims, the Public Defender of Georgia believes that the following measures should be immediately taken:

• Special attention should be paid to strengthening of services aimed preventing of and responding to child abuse. In particular, it is important that a specialized hotline be launched in time, through which children would be able to get friendly, qualified and appropriate consultation for 24 hours a day;
• Educational and social services should ensure that juveniles are informed about the forms of violence - bullying, cyber bullying, sexual harassment or other forms of psychological and physical violence, as well as the opportunity of enjoying support services;
• In the direction of timely detection and prevention of suicide risks, special efforts should be made to help professionals working with children (employees of general education institutions, teachers, social workers and others) improve their skills of working with children;
• Take more active measures to raise awareness of the community, especially children; ensure that children have a feeling that disclosure of information about their needs or problems by them will be followed by appropriate support and relevant measures from the responsible state agencies.

Finally, the Public Defender calls on the media outlets to take into account the child’s best interests and sensitivity of the issue, and be careful when covering child-related issues.