In December 2020, representatives of the Department of the Rights of the Child and the Eastern and Western Divisions of the Public Defender's Office held working meetings on topical issues related to the protection of the rights of the child during the COVID-19 pandemic.

7 seminars and discussions were held online, which were attended by about 900 representatives of local self-government bodies and state agencies: law enforcement officers, childcare workers, psychologists, resource center managers, school principals and teachers.

It was noted at the meeting that the pandemic had further highlighted the existing problems, which created new challenges for the local governments and state agencies and raised the need for rapid responses by them.

Other topics of discussion were the protection of children from violence, especially domestic violence, and timely and effective response to the cases of violence; increased poverty and inadequate living standards, especially in families living in rural and mountainous regions; the pre-pandemic challenges in educational institutions (indicated by the Public Defender for many years) and new technical problems caused by remote learning; insufficient resources needed to realize the right to life and health.

The Public Defender's Office will continue to meet with childcare professionals to better understand and analyze the challenges facing the country and to draw up recommendations for relevant agencies.

The Public Defender hopes that the above will help the state agencies, in cooperation with local self-government bodies, to make more efforts to improve the living and educational conditions for children, to properly realize the child’s rights to life, development, health and education.