On June 29, 2015, the Public Defender of Georgia addressed the Government of Georgia with the request to take timely and effective measures for preventing the sexual abuse of children and protecting their sexual integrity.

In 2014-2015 the number of cases of sexual abuse of children increased dramatically. The analysis of the cases studied by the Office of Public Defender revealed that the issues of psycho-social rehabilitation of the child victims of sexual violence, their integration into the educational system and the referral procedure have been addresses inadequately. There are frequent cases of protracted investigation / criminal prosecution and the persons responsible are not identified. Furthermore, the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on the "Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse” is inadequate, the obligation of implementation of which was undertaken by Georgia in 2014.

The Public Defender considers that the necessary pre-condition for the protection of children from sexual violence is the practical implementation of domestic and international law, for which the government shall develop an action plan. The action plan, based on the importance and complexity of the issue at stake, shall define the measures and tools for ensuring the prevention and eradication of sexual abuse; the sub-programs for the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on the "Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse” and systematic realization of the principles defined by the mentioned document shall be ensured; The professionals shall be trained in order to ensure the timely and effective investigation/criminal prosecution on the cases of sexual abuse; concrete mechanism of integrating the victims of sexual violence into the educational process and their effective psychological rehabilitation shall be carried out.