July 2008

PRI recently organised a seminar entitled “Imprisonment of Children in Georgia: Reducing the Harm.” The seminar, which brought together a group of Georgian and international criminal justice experts and child welfare specialists, was held in Tbilisi on 17 July 2008.

Professor Dainius Puras, a member of UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and Head and Associate Professor of the Centre of Child Psychiatry and Social Paediatrics at Vilnius University, spoke about protection of the rights and prevention of mental health problems among children in closed institutions.

Other speakers included staff and civil society organisations who work with children in Georgia’s prisons and special schools. Norwegian and UK specialists spoke about how children’s needs are acknowledged and met in other countries.

The framework for the seminar was the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the recommendations and observations issued in June by the Committee on the Rights of the Child following examination of Georgia’s implementation of the Convention. The CRC states: “In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.” It makes clear that children should only be imprisoned as a last resort and for the shortest period of time. This ultimate goal is not yet reached in Georgia, as was reflected in the CRC Committee recent concluding observations.

The seminar enabled discussions regarding practices, tools and resources which are or should be in place in the existing Georgian criminal justice and welfare system to identify and help children who are experiencing or may develop mental health and psycho-social problems. It also identified longer term strategies for ensuring fulfilment by Georgia of its obligations to ensure that its criminal justice practice is in the best interests of the child.

Mary Murphy, PRI’s Policy Director and former Regional Director for the South Caucasus, who chaired the seminar, commented afterwards: ‘The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has given a very timely reminder of the basic values which should be the foundation of juvenile justice policy and practice. Today’s meeting has shown that the needs of children in conflict with the law, and thus the needs of society, go unmet if the government does not invest in a system that acknowledges and addresses their vulnerability. We were delighted to hear that officials have approached UNICEF for assistance in developing new strategic directions for juvenile justice, and hope that the government will respond positively to the offer of cooperation from the many well qualified participants in today’s meeting..’

The seminar was sponsored by the Sigrid Rausing Trust, a philanthropic grant-giving charitable foundation registered in the United Kingdom which takes as its guiding framework the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Further information

Juvenile Justice

PRI and UNICEF have recently worked together to prepare and produce a practical toolkit for training on the topic of juvenile justice. The Juvenile Justice Manual was published in 2007 and is available in English, French and Arabic. To order CD-ROM versions of the toolkit, please write to publications@penalreform.org

For more information on the seminar please contact Tsira Chanturia tchanturia@penalreform.org