Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University is hosting the 2nd International Conference “Incorporation of Child Rights into University Educational Programme and Curricula”. The conference is organized by UNICEF, in partnership with Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports of Ajara AR, and under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia.
The two-day conference brought together professors and students, officials from the Government, members of Parliament, the Public Defender’s Office, NGOs, the accredited diplomatic corps in Georgia, representatives from UN agencies, international organizations, school teachers, and administrative representatives.
At the opening of the conference, the participants were welcomed by Ekaterine Dgebuadze, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, Maia Khajishvili, Minister of Education, Culture, and Sport of Ajara AR; David Sergeenko, Deputy Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia and Chair of the Permanent Parliamentary Council for the Protection of the Rights of the Child; Nino Kadagidze, President of the Supreme Court of Georgia; Afshan Khan, UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia; Tamar Siradze, Deputy Rector of the Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University; and Ghassan Khalil, UNICEF Representative in Georgia.
The conference aimes to provide space for teaching and learning about child rights, and help empower future specialists to put this knowledge into practice in their day-to-day lives. The conference enables all state universities in Georgia to share their initiatives aimed at incorporating the rights of the child into university programmes for the education of future child rights advocates in the fields of education, law, business, and other disciplines.
In the frame of the conference the discussions by well-known national and international specialists, teachers, as well as the student winners of an essay writing contest will take place. The participants will conduct the presentations as well as the present the school projects. The main topics of the discussions will be dealing with the role of universities in promoting child rights, influencing social norms, and decreasing digital inequality. In total, 42 theses by 52 authors will be presented on education, law, and social policy, protection of child rights in preschool and school space, child poverty, juvenile justice, and decreasing digital inequality to increase access to education.
The International Conference in Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University is the second annual conference on incorporation of child rights into university curricula. The first such conference was held in 2020 at Akaki Tsereteli State University, Kutaisi, where it provided a platform for structured exchange among international and national experts on theory, research, policy, and practices relating to child rights. Between the first and second Conference, seven Child Rights Centres have been established.
In the frame of the conference the competition in student essays and school projects on child rights was held. As a result, two student essay authors and 15 schools from all over the country were awarded with certificates to further advance their work on child rights issues.
Moreover, a series of webinars led by prominent experts on child rights and child development, took place on topics such as violence against children and its impact, challenges facing teens, and quality and essence of early childhood education.
Training on digital advocacy for young people was also organized as part of the Conference in Makhunteti, Keda Municipality. The training participants presented their advocacy topics and plans to the UNICEF Representative and to the conference participants, which included advocacy on reduction of the digital divide to ensure access to quality education for children in the mountainous area of Ajara.
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