National Report

onFollow-up to the

World Summit for Children

GEORGIA

December 2000

1

A.Introduction and background

  1. As Georgia was part of the Soviet Union in 1990, Foreign Affairs Minister Edward Shevardnadze headed the Soviet Union delegation at the World Summit for Children (WSC). Presently, Mr. Edward Shevardnadze is the President of Georgia.
  2. The preparation for the development of NPA started in 1994. For this purpose, an Inter-ministerial Commission of the Cabinet of Ministers was established together with its Secretariat at the State Chancellery. The Inter-ministerial Commission included the representatives of the Ministries of Health, Education, Labour and Social Security, Environment, Internal Affairs, Justice, as well as the Committee on Refugees and Resettlement. A year later (1995), the now sovereign state of Georgia had elaborated its National Plan of Action (NPA) as a follow-up to the WSC.
  3. The participating ministries of the Inter-ministerial Commission were charged to create specific working groups to guide the NPA’s implementation in their respective fields and review the progress periodically. In addition, a Secretariat of the Inter-ministerial Commission was made responsible for the overall coordination and monitoring of the process of NPA implementation. However, the Secretariat ceased functioning after two and a half years of being established due to the structural changes at the State Chancellery. Notwithstanding this fact, the participating ministries continued their work in the fulfillment of the goals stated in the National Plan of Action.
  4. The mid-term review of the five years of cooperation between UNICEF and the Government of Georgia in 1997 served as an opportunity to review the progress made towards the end-decade goals. This review identified areas of further work and made recommendations for the future.
  5. Other mechanisms for periodic review of progress are wide and diverse. Each ministry holds periodic meetings and issues annual papers summarizing the data for relevant sector indicators. Since April 1999 the state structure — Children's Federation together with the State Department of Youth Affairs — was made responsible for preparing an annual report on the situation of children and youth in Georgia and for the regular monitoring of their conditions. Data generated through the assessments, surveys and studies were recognized as a major source of information on the situation of children and women in Georgia. Furthermore, the country benefited from the participation in ICDC's MONEE project. Similarly, several other reports — on the CRC, CEDAW and other human rights instruments — served as a good tool for periodic review and monitoring of the situation of women and children.
  6. Georgia submitted its initial report of State party to the Committee on the Rights of the Child in February 1998. After considering Georgia's report, in its concluding observations, in June 2000, the Committee noted with concern that:

domestic legislation still does not fully reflect the principles and provisions of the Convention;

insufficient efforts have been made to include civil society in the coordination and implementation of the Convention;

there is a lack of an effective mechanism to facilitate the coordination and systematic implementation of the Convention and to monitor the progress achieved in this regard; current data collection mechanism is insufficient to afford the systematic and comprehensive collection of desegregated quantitative and qualitative data for all areas covered by the Convention;

not enough attention has been paid in allocating budgetary resources in favour of children “to the maximum extent of … available resources”;

professional groups, children, parents, and the public at large are generally not sufficiently aware of the Convention and the rights-based approach enshrined therein.

Other comments of the Committee on the Rights of the Child are spread throughout this report under the relevant sub-headings.

  1. Process established for the End-decade Review
  1. The End-decade Review exercise was a joint effort of various national and international organizations present in the country. For this purpose, a Steering Committee, composed of governmental and non-governmental organizations, was established. The recently established Department on Women, Children, Family Planning and Demography, served as the Secretariat for this Committee. The Steering Committee formed thematic working groups around the four major themes stemming from the Convention on the Rights of the Child: child survival, development, protection and participation. Each working group was composed of various agencies working for and with children and was assigned the task to collect all available information for the review, discuss and consult with as many organizations and civil society representatives as possible, including consultancies with children themselves. The latter was possible due to the recent election of a Children’s and Youth Parliament and the creation of a Youth Forum, the members of which represent the views of their peers. The work of the thematic working groups was guided and supervised by the Steering Committee holding periodic review meetings. This Committee consolidated the group papers and produced the draft report. The draft was made available to various organizations and was discussed at the public review meeting attended by children and youth, representatives of national and sub-national governmental and non-governmental establishments, as well as by the UN agencies and international organizations. The Steering Committee incorporated comments and suggestions expressed at that meeting and produced the current report.
  2. The Steering Committee is particularly grateful to UNICEF which, being the member of the Steering Committee itself, took the responsibility for leading discussions on the assessment and analysis of progress. And, also to Save the Children for raising awareness on the end-decade review.
  3. This report builds heavily on the previous reviews, studies, surveys and assessments undertaken in the country on the issues relevant to children. These include: country reports on the Convention of the Rights of the Child and other human rights instruments, UNICEF Situation Analysis of Women and Children[1], review of Georgian legislation with regard to CRC, Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, Reproductive Health Survey, MONEE country reports, UNDP Human Development reports, Donor Agency reports, national policy documents, vulnerability assessments, and major evaluations.
  1. Action at the national and international levels

Action at the national level

  1. As mentioned in the introduction, the National Plan of Action for Children was elaborated in 1995 by the Inter-ministerial Commission of the Cabinet of Ministers with its Secretariat at the State Chancellery. The aim of these bodies was to implement and monitor the NPA. Although, separate ministries formed the working groups and prepared their own plans for the NPA implementation, they failed to involve local self-governmental bodies and civil society in the process. In addition, the process of coordinated action towards implementing the National Plan of Action was not sustained in the long run due to the structural changes in the State Chancellery when the Secretariat of the Inter-ministerial Commission ceased to function. This function only resumed in 1999 with the establishment of the Department on Women, Children, Family Development and Demography within the State Chancellery.
  2. Other than the above-mentioned organizations, there have been numerous governmental and non-governmental organizations enabling Georgia to implement the commitments undertaken at the National Plan of Action.

There are a number of ministries and governmental departments and structures working directly on children’s and youth issues. These are: the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs (in 1997, the MCH Department was established); Ministry of Education (in 1996 the Department on early childhood development, secondary education and protection of the child rights was established); Ministry of Internal Affairs (which hosts the Department on minors affairs); Ministry on Refugees and Accommodation; State Department of Youth Affairs; and Children’s Federation.

In 1999, the Parliamentary Sub-committee on Mother and Child Affairs was instituted to participate in the preparation of draft laws relevant to children.

In 1995, the ConstitutionalInstitute of Public Defender (Ombudsman) was introduced to examine the complaints relating to the violation of human rights. This office includes a Commissioner for the Rights of Women and Children. Regarding the functioning of this institute, the CRC Committee suggests that ‘the State party take all appropriate measures to ensure that its independent complaints mechanisms are easily accessible to and user-friendly for all children; introduce an awareness raising campaign to facilitate the effective use by children of such a mechanism; and, the State Party allocate adequate financial and human resources to ensure the effective functioning of the Office of the Public Defender in all regions of the country’.

The National Ombudsman's office started operating in 1996. In accordance with the Constitution, the office is entrusted with supervising the protection of human rights and freedoms in the territory of Georgia. The establishment of a section for women’s and children’s problems within the office of the National Ombudsman is envisaged.

In recent years, children have been more involved in matters affecting their lives. In April 2000, the Children’s and Youth Parliament of Georgia was elected. The previous Children's Parliament, which was elected in 1998, only functioned for one year. The Children’s and Youth Parliament is mandated to consider relevant youth issues and prepare recommendations in this regard to the National Parliament of Georgia, thus being an important venue for ensuring the participation of children in the decision-making process. In the near future, all schools will create children’s councils where children can express their views.

In Imereti region of western Georgia, a Children's Forum started functioning with the representatives from all eleven districts of that region. The Forum is a place where children are expressing the views of their peers, bringing their concerns to the regional authorities and suggesting specific actions to improve their educational and leisure activities.

An NGO Coordination Council, combining up to 35 NGOs, is actively working for and with children. Most of these NGOs are concentrated in the capital since those in the regions still have weak NGO communities. Although there has been progress in the ability of NGOs to speak out for, and defend the rights of individual citizens, they still need to be supported and strengthened in order to participate effectively in the development of democratic legislative and social reform and to collaborate constructively with the Government.

Some 200 independent newspapers are in circulation, mainly in big cities. However, there are only five journals and eight newspapers for children or dedicated to children’s issues. Thirty regional television stations operate in the country. All the major newspapers and TV stations are giving insights and reviews of the implementation of Government reforms. However, there are only a few programmes for children and almost none where children participate.

Notwithstanding the sufficient number of governmental structures aiming to improve the conditions of women and children, more effective use of the resources and more institutional mechanisms need to be put in place to ensure the protection of children's rights. Even with the existing mechanisms in place, the work done by individual agencies is far below expectations, lacking professional staff and motivation owing to the nominal salaries.

  1. During a decade of the country’s transition to a market-oriented economy, the Government of Georgia, with the assistance of donor agencies, has introduced several reforms and programmes to reduce human suffering, and improve the conditions of women and children. These were the reforms in the sectors of economy, governance, judiciary, health care, and education.

In 1995, in close collaboration with WHO and World Bank, the Government of Georgia elaborated health care reform and adopted a National Health Policy in 1999. All of these provisions and the various laws on health care and its delivery, reflects the Government’s growing recognition of the importance of primary health care, maternal and child health services, and role of prevention.

1995 was also marked with the introduction of the education sector reform followed by the Law on Education (1997), emphasizing the importance of quality education and the need of decentralization of the system.

In 1996, a presidential programme "Building and Development: Way to the Well-being for Georgia" was introduced stipulating social security of a population as a key priority and envisaging the achievement of complete accessibility of healthcare services; forming of educational system accessible for all and meeting international standards in this field.

In June 1998, the President of Georgia approved a "Plan of Action for Improving Women’s Conditions in Georgia for the period 1998-2000".

A special law on Socio-Economic and Cultural Development of High Mountain Regions was adopted in 1999. According to this law, children living in these areas have the right to free secondary education and health care.

In January 2000, the Government of Georgia approved a document entitled "Principles of Social Development of Georgia" one of the objectives of which is ensuring rights and social guarantees for families, women, children and youth.

  1. Various reforms in the social sector were supported by both the state budget and development assistance budgets, Government allocating over one-third and donor community over one-fifth each year to the basic social services. Notwithstanding the considerable share of the budgetary expenditures on social services the actual amount of resources allocated were far below the resources needed for effective implementation of those reforms and programmes. For example, annual health care expenditures per capita have not been more than 7 USD during the years of transition. Therefore, the services increasingly depend on private contributions which an indigent public can scarcely afford.
  2. The situation is exacerbated even further due to the consistent deficit in financing due to the low level of public revenues and tax collection, and widespread corruption in the country. The recommendation of the CRC committee in this regard was "to improve its system of tax collection and reinforce its efforts to eradicate corruption".
  3. Though corruption continues, progress has been made in reducing crime and strengthening the judiciary. Georgia has maintained stable exchange rate since the end of 1994. According to the IMF report "despite five consecutive years of positive output growth since 1995, Georgia still faces pressing economic problems. The fiscal position – with significant arrears and high indebtedness is the most immediate concern".

Action at the international level

  1. From the early years of the transition period, Georgia cooperated with international organizations and the donor community. Since 1992, the assistance received from the international donor community has been in the form of emergency humanitarian assistance. Whereas after 1995, the emphasis shifted towards rehabilitation and development programmes such as economic and social sector restructuring and democratization.
  2. The donations and loans received from the bilateral -- the largest being USAID -- and multilateral donors either directly, or though the UN and NGOs, supported the reforms and policies aiming to improve the political, economic and social situation in the country, to establish the rule of law, and form the third sector.
  3. Most of the United Nations agencies have had important roles in a number of areas within their mandates. Activities of UNHCR included the support to refugee/IDP families, WFP was involved mainly in food supply provision to vulnerable households, UNFPA was active in family planning and reproductive health, WHO assisted in the formulation and development of health policy, while UNICEF was involved almost in all spheres affecting the well-being of children and their mothers.
  4. Many international NGOs and institutions have been active in a number of areas affecting the well-being of children and women. These are Save the children, World Vision, OXFAM, MSF, UMCOR, IFRC, ICRC, IRC, NRC, CARE, John Hopkins University, Centers for Disease Control (Atlanta), etc.
  5. Given its late start down the reform path, Georgia’s successful transition to free-market democracy will require donor assistance well beyond 2000.
  6. The Government of Georgia, national and international organizations, constantly monitor the situation of women and children in the country. The international organizations, as a rule, commission various studies and surveys, whereas government mainly commands by the administrative records (births and deaths, disease, school statistics, etc.) which in most cases is not representative of the whole population of Georgia. School statistics is probably more reliable than health data, as witness the figures of under-five children's deaths. (For more information about monitoring mechanisms see Paragraph 5.)

Contingency Planning