Tbilisi. On 17 September 2015 the Public Defender addressed the Children's Infectious Clinical Hospital of Tbilisi to develop a united action plan and an internal document to ensure equal treatment of patients, their parents, guardians or other representatives in all units of the hospital. 

"According to the applicant, on 24 April 2015 his juvenile child N.G. was taken to the Children's Infectious Clinical Hospital due to an acute infectious disease and high temperature. The applicant wanted to stay with his child from 15:00 to 00:00, though the head of the hospital’s respiratory infections unit refused him to stay on the grounds that the mentioned right could be given only to the patient’s mother or grandmother, while men were not allowed to do it. The Public Defender considers that similar stereotypes restrict men to play an important role in their children’s life and to share parental burden with their wives. It is of vital importance to avoid the decline of fathers’ role in the child care and to enable them to equally enjoy parental rights in a stigma-free environment and fulfill their duties'', noted in the statement.

Source: www.ombudsman.ge