Prevention of Early Marriage
On 27 May, an advocacy meeting was held by Public Defender’s Office (PDO) of Georgia with the partnership of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on the following topic: „Prevention of Early Marriage for Promoting Gender Equality and Reproductive Health”. The aim of this meeting was a promotion of dialogue among the stakeholders about the problems of early marriage.
The meeting was attended by the representatives of the Government of Georgia, Local and International Organizations. The Public Defender of Georgia, Ucha Nanuashvili has presented recommendations and information on the early marriage’s issues reflected in the parliamentary report for 2013 to the participants of this meeting. The Public Defender has paid particular attention on the strengthening of interagency coordination and the need of increasing a level of knowledge of professionals working with children, societies and other stakeholders.
A special report conducted by UNFPA on the issues of early marriage was presented by Lela Bakradze, a headofUnited Nations Population Fund office in Georgia. Rati Bregadze, Deputy Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia has also informed the participants about a newly adopted state policy on the youth.
At the end of this meeting, the participants were given the opportunity to express their opinions and to receive answers to their questions from the panellists.
The participants of this meeting unequivocally stated that at present there is no common state policy for prevention of early marriage in place Georgia and in this regard, the coordination of the activities among relevant state bodies is poor. The Public Defender of Georgia will further continue advocating this issue and engage in providing educational activities designed to reduce the cases of early marriages and assisting the girls to follow their career and professional development without disturbances.
