Children Living And/Or Working in the Streets of Georgia
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Human Rights 4All CHILDREN LIVING AND/OR WORKING IN THE STREETS OF GEORGIA CHILDREN LIVING AND/OR WORKING IN THE STREETS OF GEORGIA 2018 © United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) July, 2018 UNICEF [email protected] www.unicef.ge http://data.unicef.ge This document has been produced by UNICEF with the assistance of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of authors and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union and UNICEF. Cover photo by David Khizanishvili CONTENTS Foreword ........................................................................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................................................... vi Maps .........................................................................................................................................................................vii Acronyms ........................................................................................................................................................................viii Executive summary .......................................................................................................................................................... ix 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................... 1 Georgia and Azerbaijan: Street activities, children and the law ............................................................ 4 Who are they? Defining ‘children living and/or working in the street’ ................................................ 5 Ethnic identities and the minority issue ......................................................................................................... 7 Approach ................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Dimensions of street connectedness and outline of chapters .............................................................10 Research method and techniques ..................................................................................................................11 A particular note on bias and empirical limitations .................................................................................14 Ethical considerations .........................................................................................................................................14 2. CIRCUMSTANCES OF CHILDREN’S STREET LIVES ....................................................................................16 Being in, and taking to, the street ...................................................................................................................16 From parents’ forced migration to street life with friends .........................................................16 Accompanying parents, paying bills .................................................................................................17 Avoiding the home ..................................................................................................................................20 Escaping rules ............................................................................................................................................21 Variations in parental relations and accompaniment..............................................................................22 Sub-categories of street-connected children in Georgia .......................................................................22 Homeless youth/children of the street .............................................................................................23 Unaccompanied children/youth in the street, sleeping at home ...........................................23 Street children of mobile street families ..........................................................................................24 Street children of homeless families .................................................................................................24 Intersections with ethnicity ..............................................................................................................................24 3. LIVING IN THE STREETS: ACTIVITIES, ROUTES AND PEER DYNAMICS ................................................25 Economic activities and means of survival ..................................................................................................25 Livelihoods in rural centres and areas ...........................................................................................................26 Movements and seasonal migration .............................................................................................................28 III CHILDREN LIVING AND WORKING IN THE STREETS OF GEORGIA Petty crime ..............................................................................................................................................................30 Groups of cooperation and assistance ..........................................................................................................32 Issues of rank, age and life cycle ......................................................................................................................34 Other aspects of street living, sleeping and violation of rights ...........................................................36 In sum ........................................................................................................................................................................37 4. ENCOUNTERS: SERVICES, FAMILIES AND CHILDREN ..................................................................................38 Sub-groups of children, different circumstances and needs ................................................................38 Current services in Azerbaijan and Georgia, an overview .....................................................................39 Social assistance .......................................................................................................................................39 Services for children ................................................................................................................................40 ID papers, the gateway to services ....................................................................................................41 Parents and families .............................................................................................................................................42 Cultures of mobility: Past success and present decline ..............................................................42 ‘We know what you want’: Protecting children from child protection .................................44 Encounters between services, caretakers, families and children ........................................................45 5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................................47 Lessons learned .....................................................................................................................................................47 Differentiation of children: Parental accompaniment and ethnicity .....................................47 The social organization of children’s street lives ...........................................................................48 Factors facilitating children’s street lives and new recruits .......................................................49 Essential rights violations ......................................................................................................................50 The hard-to-reach Azerbaijani children in Georgia ......................................................................51 Needs for services ....................................................................................................................................51 Existing services ........................................................................................................................................53 Recommendations ...............................................................................................................................................54 Preventive measures ...............................................................................................................................54 Response measures .................................................................................................................................55 REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................................................................58 ANNEXES .........................................................................................................................................................................59 Annex 1. Institutional study Georgia .............................................................................................................59 Annex 2. Institutional study Azerbaijan ........................................................................................................69 Annex 3.