The present Report covers the findings of the monitoring of residential childcare institutions carriedout by the Special Preventive Group of the Office of Public Defender of Georgia in December 2011,within the National Preventive Mechanism mandate. During the monitoring, the Special PreventiveGroup visited residential childcare institutions under the control of “State Care Agency” of theMinistry of Health and Social Affairs of Georgia (Tskneti orphanage, Kojori orphanage, orphanage“Satnoeba”, orphanage “Momavlis sakhli”, Saguramo orphanage, Telavi orphanage, Kutaisiorphanage, Rustavi orphanage, Tsalenjikha orphanage, Zugdidi orphanage, Aspindza orphanage,Batumi orphanage, Tserovani orphanage) as well as the small family type homes for children (inVardisubani, Dusheti, Godogani, Ozurgeti, Kutaisi, Rustavi, Tbilisi, Khashuri, Batumi, Telavi). In total,the Special Preventive Group visited 13 large residential childcare institutions and 17 small familytype homes.

The situation of the rights of children living in residential institutions was observed during themonitoring. While exercising its powers under the mandate of the National Preventive Mechanismas envisaged by the Organic Law “on the Public Defender of Georgia”, the Special Preventive Groupwas guided by the Constitution of Georgia, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Law of Georgia“On Licensing the Residential Childcare Institutions,” national standards on childcare1 and othernormative acts.2

The Special Preventive Group deliberately conducted the monitoring visits in parallel with the deinstitutionalization process in order to observe both the conditions of children living in largeresidential childcare institutions and the process of transferring the children to the small family typehomes. Having analyzed the findings of the monitoring, the Special Preventive Group identified notonly result-based but also procedural deficiencies. It shall be mentioned as a positive step forwardthat, unlike the previous year, in 2011 the monitoring group did not face any impediments on thepart of the administrations of the state agencies while performing the monitoring.

Following the previous monitoring conducted in January 2011, the Public Defender addressed thestate agencies with 58 recommendations.

It is to be emphasized that the relevant state agencies partly or fully satisfied part of therecommendations made by the Public Defender. In 2011, some steps were undertaken to ensure thecontinuous provision of high quality medical care for the beneficiaries of children’s homes. A major part of directors and doctors of the institutions have taken into consideration the recommendationsissued in the previous year. The positive tendency of considerable decrease in the number of casesof ill-treatment of children living in residential institutions was visible as well.

In spite of the above-mentioned, the monitoring undertaken in December 2011 revealed thefollowing violations: violence against children, ill-treatment and child neglect. In general, the rightsof the children living in residential institutions were better protected compared to previous years.

The present Report examines in detail the problematic issues identified during the monitoring andprovides recommendations aimed at enhancing the protection of the rights of children living inresidential institutions, in line with international and national standards.

The Public Defender hopes that those state agencies responsible for the protection of therights of the children deprived of parental care and for the provision of children with livingconditions respecting their dignity, will carefully study the present Report consider further therecommendations provided herein.

Report on the Monitoring of Residential Childcare Institutions for 2011