2019-12-19
"I am very sad that a tragic event occurring several days ago accelerated our systemic approach to current drawbacks in parallel with all those positive steps that have been taken by us" stated Natia Mezvrishvili, Head of Government Administration of Georgia at an Inter-Agency Work-Group Meeting held today at the Government Administration.
In the opinion of the Head of Government Administration, authorities are doing their best to improve the education system and implement systemic reforms; country has fairly sound legislation focused on the best interests of the child with a great contribution of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, though quite many challenges exist in practice.
Natia Mezvrishvili stressed the need to acknowledge the problems and called upon ministry officials to speak openly about the drawbacks experienced in practice, including those in the enforcement of the legislation; open discussion is expected to happen with an engagement of the civil sector and subject-matter experts, as they see current challenges from a different angle.
"Engagement has always been of great importance to us. It is understandable that differences in ideas exist on a number of topics. Subject-matter specialists, experts, NGOs and public institutions often fail to agree on topics, though I call upon you at line ministries to ensure the engagement of these people on every topic discussed in this format or at individual line ministries, as they see challenges faced by ministries from a different perspective and therefore communication is essential" added the Head of Government Administration.
According to Natia Mezvrishvili, process will flow in a most efficient manner and Human Rights Secretariat at the Government Administration will be mandated to coordinate it.
Meeting today was attended by Deputy Ministers of Education, Health, Justice and Interior, Deputy Ombudsman, representatives of NGOs working on the rights of the child, psychologists and experts. Work-Group Meeting participants agreed that coordination will continue and concrete proposals will be developed along with recommendations to facilitate the eradication of faults experienced in the process of juvenile justice, along with an improvement of physical and psychic healthcare mechanisms of children at education institutions. It was noted that everything related to children and youth care, should become further more effective and productive to avoid such tragic developments in future.
Next meeting of the Inter-Agency Work-Group will be held on December 25, 2019 to review problems faced by line ministries and concrete solutions to them.