Report on the State of Human Rights in Institutions for Persons with Disabilities As a result of an interview with a nine-year-old child, it was found out that “two of the three nurses are aggressive; they beat children and pull their hair”; one of the nurses whose name the child was not able to name beats children with a big stick when they refuse to go to bed, and this stick is white, long, and made of plastic. To check the abovementioned information, the members of the group of experts inspected the presumable place of the stick – the boys’ bedroom section where they found the aforementioned “stick” lying in one of the rooms; it was a long plastic water pipe (it was photographed). Later, the same child recognized the “stick” s/he had mentioned. According to a nine-year-old child, when children make their beds untidy, teachers make them stand at the wall and hit them in the hands, making their hands become red by beating. A nurse called M. sometimes hits them in the legs with an iron stick. A conversation with another nine-year-old revealed that a teacher called N. quarrels with him and shouts at him/her, because s/he does not obey her. The nurses make him stand in the corner, “one of the nurses is especially aggressive and slaps him/her in the head.” This nurse (whose name s/he did not say) has a habit of hitting children the face and pulling their ears and hair. The child said that this nurse (whose name s/he did not say) had hit another child with a stick; then s/he changed his/her words and blamed it on an elder boy. S/he described the stick as brown and made of iron. The Akhaltsikhe Public School No. 7 111 In the Akhaltsikhe school, beneficiaries told the group about facts of ill-treatment by the staff. According to a 17-year-old, nurses T. and N. shout at her; she dislikes the night nurse E., who is “aggressive”, the most. According to the juvenile, the children tidy up rooms and toilets in the institution. She herself helps the neighbors in the kitchen garden and in tidying the house. Teacher D. took her together with the boys to cut firewood. “The boys cut it and we collected it. [Children] go to the teachers’ homes. Teacher L.’s daughter-in-law was pregnant, and I cleaned their floors. D. gets the children to cut firewood.” According to an eight-year-old child, nurse E. hits him in the head with her hand; “Nurse M. also hits me.” He is also beaten by elder children: “Merab made my nose bleed; I had called him names.” According to a 14-year-old beneficiary, “M. beats children, s/he drinks alcohol; in May s/he drank at a funeral dinner for teacher E.’s mother, and when s/he came to the school, s/he quarreled with the teachers. The nurse made him/her drink a sleeping pill by force and they made him/her lie on the bed.” The director lets the boys drink a little; the wine is kept here, in the basement.” According to a six-year-old, teachers M. and M. shout at him/her, while K. hits him/her in the head and pulls his/her ear. The Dzevri Boarding House for Persons with Disabilities From interviews with beneficiaries of the institution, the experts of the preventive group received information about physical and psychological abuse and labor exploitation used against the beneficiaries by some of the employees of the institution. From the beginning, the experts noticed behavioral manifestations of strong fear and distrust on the part 111 Specialized boarding scholl for children with disabilities aged from 5 to18, 31 pupils enrolled NPM Report 2012 According to a 13-year-old child, s/he dislikes E.: “She is constantly shouting; she does not let us watch TV and makes us go to bed immediately; she pulls my hair; she beats disobedient children –Alika and the Adjarians. [Another nurse] tells her not to beat children; she says that she must not do it, or else the director will dismiss her.”