The Ministry of Internal Affairs has launched an information campaign - "Do Not Deprive Childhood", which aims to eliminate child marriage and raise public awareness on this issue, as well as ensure crime reporting to law enforcers in a timely manner.
One of the priorities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is to fight against child marriage and detect such cases timely. Therefore, Human Rights Protection and Investigation Quality Monitoring Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is studying and monitoring all possible cases of child marriage across the country.
At the opening ceremony of the campaign the invited guests were addressed by the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs – Aleksandre Darakhvelidze, the Head of the UNFPA Country Office Georgia - Lela Bakradze and the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden to Georgia - H.E. Ulrik Tidestrom.
The representatives of the Governmental and Non-Governmental sector, members of Parliament, representatives of the Public Defender’s office and international organizations working on the issue attended the event.
During the ceremony Human Rights Protection and Investigation Quality Monitoring Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs made the presentation through which the attendees were informed about the statistics of child marriage and the activities to be implemented within the campaign.
Moreover, a panel discussion was held where the following speakers participated: Niko Tatulashvili - Advisor to the Prime Minister of Georgia on Human Rights, Tamar Makharashvili - First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, Tamila Barkalaia - Deputy Minister of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia and Sophio Rusetski - Head of Gender Department of the Public Defender’s Office.
In addition, the video was prepared on child marriage in which the representatives of various agencies talk about the negative aspects of child marriage and stress the importance of fighting against early marriage.
The campaign is carried out with the partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Georgia Office, under the auspices of the United Nations Joint Program on Gender Equality, funded by Sweden.
The Information campaign will last for a month and will include numerous events, such as meetings with different target groups in Tbilisi and the regions. Meetings will be held by the staff of the Human Rights Protection and Investigation Quality Monitoring Department together with the police departments and the representatives of the other partner agencies. Also, a drawing contest will be organized.
Information booklets were printed in Georgian, Azerbaijani and Armenian languages within the framework of the campaign. Bookmarks, T-shirts, brooches, bags and other branded materials were produced, which will be distributed to school administrations and other stakeholders.
