Georgian Patriarchate to appeal against court ruling on removal of beneficiaries from Ninotsminda orphanage

The Georgian Patriarchate will appeal against the court ruling on the removal of beneficiaries from the Ninotsminda orphanage.

According to the statement released by the Georgian Patriarchate, no relevant evidence of ill-treatment or violence against minors has been provided.

In addition, the Patriarchate believes that the accelerated process of the removal of beneficiaries is not in the best interests of the children.

„1. We would like to say that nobody has addressed us regarding the problems related to the entry of the Public Defender into the orphanage and we learned about it only through the mass media. That’s why we got involved later. Currently the situation has changed. Social workers are present there and the beneficiaries are monitored for 24 hours. Regarding children, the Church will continue to cooperate with relevant agencies and organizations in compliance with the standards provided by Georgian legislation.

At the same time, we declare that we will appeal against the court decision regarding the removal of the beneficiaries from the Ninotsminda orphanage, as no relevant evidence of ill-treatment or violence against the minors has been provided; in addition the administration and staff of the institution have not been given the opportunity to express their position.

It is necessary for the relevant services to investigate the allegations in a timely and objective manner in order to ensure fair assessment of the events.

We believe that the accelerated process of removing beneficiaries from the orphanage is not in the best interests of children, as no current situation has been assessed by social workers or no report has been provided by the competent specialists. We think that the unjustified and hasty transfer of children will only hurt the beneficiaries and it contradicts the protection of their rights.

We believe that the rights of each child should be taken into account and that an unbiased and individual plan should be devised so that juveniles are not traumatized on the one hand and are not used for an anti-church campaign on the other hand," reads the statement.