The Public Defender of Georgia is responding to the statement made by Gigi Ugulava during a rally on November 9, 2021, which poses a threat to the child’s psycho-emotional state and violates the best interest of the child- to be protected from any form of violence.

“The Public Defender emphasizes that it is inadmissible to use children, their personal lives and family status as tools of political debate. Such action not only violates the rights of a particular child, but also endangers the best interests of children in general in the country. Despite the tense political background, children should be protected from any form of psycho-emotional violence and the responsibility to take this into account lies primarily with public figures.

The Public Defender of Georgia calls on public figures and politicians to be guided by the standard of the protection of the best interests of the child during political debates or any other process and not to encourage violence, bullying or other actions against children”, - reads the statement.