National Preventive Mechanism of the beneficiaries. Specifically, on seeing staff members and other beneficiaries, they started to praise employees of the institution loudly, though, in confidential conversations, they provided the experts with contrary information about ill- treatment of beneficiaries by the same employees. According to one of the beneficiaries, in the morning, while it is still dark, employees of the institution force him to get up from bed and quarrel with him. Because of this, employee O. hit him in the stomach; A. also quarrels with him and hits him. N.A. beats beneficiaries “when they defecate in their underwear.” The orderlies make him work by force and threaten him: “Do it quickly or I will beat you up.” The aforementioned beneficiary goes with N.A. to work in his house (N.A. also takes other beneficiaries in addition to him) and sweeps and cleans the floor, in return for which N.A. gives him some food. Ill-treatment by the same employees, was also confirmed by a 27-year-old beneficiary. According to him/her, when beneficiaries break something, employees A., O., and N.A. shout at them and beat them. The aforementioned beneficiary also confirmed that N.A. and R.P. took beneficiaries to work in their houses. When asked whether employees of the institution had carried out violence against him, one of the beneficiaries replied: “If I tell you, they will beat me after you leave; they beat us.” However, later he agreed to talk and said the following about the employee whom other beneficiaries had also mentioned: “O. has beaten me and I no longer speak to him; Temur [the director] got angry with him when I told him he had beaten me.” “The orderlies do not deserve being helped; they quarrel, shout, and hit.” Another beneficiary named M.Ch. who had tied him with a chain and beaten him, as well as another employee of the institution, N.P., who had also abused him physically. According to yet another beneficiary, “the orderlies beat us when we do not get up, they [beneficiaries] tear things up, orderlies make invalids clean the toilet and make them change the dirty underwear [of other beneficiaries], then they take it to wash.” (He didn’t give the names of the orderlies for fear: “I’m afraid of the orderlies, promise me that you won’t tell them anything.”) N.A. drinks together with orderlies every day, gets drunk, and goes to bed at night.” The experts also received information about the Dzevri institution while they were visiting the Martkopi Boarding House for Persons with Disabilities. The beneficiaries who had been transferred from the Dzevri institution to Martkopi in March 2012 told us about the practice of ill-treatment in the Dzevri institution. According to 56- and 42-year-old beneficiaries, they saw “orderly N.A. (the initials of the aforementioned staff member blamed for abuse) pulling the hair of M.S. (beneficiary), slapping him, and hitting him with a broom this big several times, swearing at him at the same time.” According to the 42-year-old beneficiary, he “saw N.A. removing a light bulb; I asked him why he was removing it; N.A. got off the chair and slapped me so hard that my head began to shake.” Two beneficiaries also named a cleaning person D.B. who stole their personal items and acted violently towards other beneficiaries, pulling their hair and assaulting them verbally. “We were freezing in winter; the door did not close entirely; they only turned on the heating for two hours; they took away the solar oiling fuel cans,” said one of the beneficiaries. The Senaki Institution for Children with Disabilities 112 From interviews with beneficiaries, the experts learned about ill-treatment towards beneficiaries by some of the employees of the institution. The experts revealed facts of abuse and neglect towards an 11-year-old beneficiary. The beneficiary presumably has an acute mental retardation with behavioral disorder. It turned out to be impossible to interview the aforementioned beneficiary, due to his/her restricted function of speech. 112 youth aged from 6 to 18, 22 are enrolled. www.ombudsman.ge NPM Report