RIGHTS OF CHILDREN IN SMALL FAMILY-TYPE CHILDREN’S HOMES According to the Resolution of the Parliament of Georgia No. 912 dated 30 July 2013 concerning the Report of the Public Defender about Human Rights and Freedoms in Georgia in 2012, the Georgian Parliament took note of the Report as of very important factual information about the wholesale violation of human rights in 2012. Also, the Parliament agreed with the recommendations of the Public Defender to the Minister of Labor, Health and Social Protection resolving: ±± That, given the high number of children living in poverty, the Minister shall develop a unified, practically usable and real-life-adapted standard for improving the supervision over the growing and development as well as health of the beneficiaries of small family-type children’s homes; to make the number of family-type homes proportionate to the overall number of the beneficiaries; ±± That the Minister shall ensure that information about services provided to children is collected according to the requirements of the Childcare Standards, by way of elaborating internal regulations and other required components for the family-type children’s homes; for the purpose of preventing violence and inhuman treatment against children subjected to State care, the Minister shall take effective measures to actively facilitate their reintegration into the families. Results of the monitoring conducted by the Public Defender’s Special Preventive Group in 2012 showed that, despite the correct systemic measures implemented by the State in the area of orphan care, the conditions of living at small family-type children’s homes are not meeting the requirements under the Childcare Standards. The monitoring report states that “Especially noticeable is the lack of unified and clear State control mechanisms. It seems like after handing the management of small family-type children’s homes over to private organizations the State has somewhat lost its interest in improving childcare standards for children in need of care.” Our representatives have discovered a series of problems in the course of their scheduled monitoring visits to children’s homes. Further visits are necessary with a view of evaluating these problems and getting the relevant State authorities pay attention to them. In February 2014, the Public Defender’s Special Preventive Group monitored 30 small family-type children’s homes, including those in Tbilisi (13 homes), Rustavi (2 homes), Dusheti (1 home), Akhmeta (1 home), Telavi (3 homes), Mtskheta (2 homes), Khashuri (4 homes), Gori (1 home), Kaspi (1 home), Gardabani (1 home) and Lagodekhi (1 home). The monitoring was carried out by two groups each consisting of 5 experts. The groups were staffed with representatives of the Public Defender’s Prevention and Monitoring Department and the Center for Children’s Rights (4 employees in total) and 6 invited experts from the National Preventive Mechanism (psychologists, a psychiatrist, two general practitioners, a social worker and a lawyer). In monitoring the small family-type children’s homes, we used standards laid down in both international instruments and the national legislation to compare the existing situation against. In the course of monitoring, each group was using the Childcare Standards to evaluate the situation at the children’s homes. In addition, our monitoring experts examined the quality of the services provided to and treatment of the children, their physical and mental health, the infrastructure and the sanitation/hygiene conditions at the children’s homes. We also evaluated NPM Report 60