UN Committee Finds Georgia Failed to Protect Children Against Violence, Abuse in Church-Run Orphanage

Ninotsminda orphanage. Source: SKnews

On June 27, the United Nations Child Rights Committee found Georgia guilty of violating its child rights obligations by failing to take immediate action to address the frequent physical and psychological abuse of children living in a closed orphanage run by the Georgian Orthodox Church. The Committee urged Georgia to pay compensation to the victims in these cases, to issue a public apology, and to investigate the perpetrators.

The Ninotsminda St. Nino Children’s Boarding School was first identified as being in dire conditions by the Georgia Public Defender’s Office in 2015. The report highlighted frequent psychological and physical bullying of children, as well as corporal punishment by caregivers, including prostration, skipping meals, confinement, and forced crawling. Despite these problems, the orphanage received a care license in 2016 under Georgia’s new law on licensing educational activities.

In 2018, a follow-up report by the Public Defender’s Office highlighted systemic problems and the urgent need for oversight and improvement. Starting in June 2020, the office was denied access to the orphanage for almost a year. The NGO Partnership for Human Rights then took the case to various courts in Tbilisi and finally to the Committee in May 2021, which immediately granted interim measures in favor of 57 children and requested access for the Public Defender’s Office. Within a month, the Public Defender transferred 27 children to alternative care. As of November 2021, 15 children, including at least one with a disability, were still living in the orphanage, although the issues raised remained unresolved.

The Committee’s decision was made after reviewing 57 complaints from children residing at Ninotsminda St. Nino Children’s Boarding School at the time of the submission of the complaints. Of the 57, the cases of M.L. and L.K. were noted as the ones that revealed the extent of abuse and mistreatment.

Of 57 the individual cases of M.L. and L.K. revealed the extent of the abuse and mistreatment. Born in 2008, M.L. was placed at the orphanage from the age of three to thirteen, where she was severely punished for bedwetting. Caregivers often instructed older children to “discipline” her and other children by beating them with sticks or hands. She was also forced to take psychotropic medication when she was 11. Another child, L.K., born in 2003, faced similar hardships, including inadequate food, poor hygiene, and restricted movement. Her brother, who was disabled, also experienced neglect and abuse.

Committee member Benoit Van Keirsbilck stressed that Georgia should be held accountable for what happened behind the closed doors of the orphanage, as “children deprived of their family environment are entitled to special protection and assistance from the State, which is their custodian.” Noting that the treatment these children received will have lifelong consequences for their development, he underlined the importance of regular and independent monitoring of institutions where children are placed to ensure that treatment and living conditions comply with child rights standards and that such violations are not repeated in the future.

The UN Committee urged Georgia to provide effective reparations to child victims, including adequate compensation and rehabilitation, a public apology, a reassessment of those still in State care, and independent investigation and prosecution of those responsible. Reparation measures should be coordinated with child victims in order to incorporate their views.

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