Last May, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili signed into law a set of three amendments lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12 in direct contravention to UN recommendations. Children committing major crimes will be tried as adults.
Major crimes include premeditated murder, intentional damage to health, rape, most types of robbery, and possession of knives. According to a United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child report, a Georgian representative said the implementation of the law would not go into effect until juvenile detention centers were constructed. This report was dated May 26, 2008.
A month later, on June 25, 2008 I asked Georgia's current Prime Minister Vladimer (Lado) Gurgenidze to comment on the law. This is what he had to say…
