On 21 March 2019, Deputy Public Defender Ekaterine Skhiladze attended a meeting organized by the Council of Europe, the theme of which was sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children. The Deputy Public Defender talked about the challenges in this direction.

In her speech, Ekaterine Skhiladze noted that despite a number of recommendations of the Public Defender, the concept of rehabilitation of juvenile victims of sexual abuse has not been developed and no relevant service has been established. Taking rapid and effective measures by the relevant agencies in the process of protection of children from sexual abuse remains a problem. It should be particularly emphasized that children affected by sexual behavior cannot be timely identified; psycho-social rehabilitation of juvenile victims cannot be provided.

Despite the large scale of the problem, the state has failed to carry out information activities and campaigns in the formats available for the society and especially children. No educational activities are carried out in educational institutions to raise children’s’ awareness and ensure access to information.

It should be noted that the aim of the meeting was to introduce the Convention on Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote Convention) to the relevant bodies and professionals, to support the effective implementation of this Convention in Georgia and to provide specific guidelines for this purpose.