The close and intensive cooperation between Georgian Legal Socialization Program (GLSP) and ZANG Armenian Legal Socialization Program (ALSP) strengthens and continues on daily bases.
Throughout June 6-8, 2012 a team of Armenian specialists from ZANG Armenian Legal Socialization Program, including the program staff and 1 representative from 10 CJCs (Community Justice Center) currently functioning in Armenia visited their counterparts working within the Legal Socialization Program in Georgia. The cross-country program aimed at introducing the Armenian group with the Diversion and Mediation state program implemented in Georgia for juvenile offenders. The program included meetings with different professionals from Georgia who were all ready and eager to share their experiences, methods and mechanisms employed, the successes and lessons learnt.
The first day in Tbilisi was marked by the visit of the team to the Georgian Center for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture (GCRT). Natalia Zazashvili, acting as Head of the center and simultaneously a Mediator after taking part in the 2010 GLSP Professional Exchange program in the U.S., presented the key principles of mediation and the specifics of some cases she mediated.
Following this visit, the team met Natia Mezvrishvili, Head of Procedural Supervision of Investigation, Prosecutor, who delivered a detailed presentation about the juveniles' case management and referral system adopted by Georgia in 2012 after the revision of the criminal Code, diversion and mediation practices, the criteria for juvenile offenders' to be referred to Mediation service or be involved in the Diversion program.
The presentation and the Q&A session were very informative, interesting and important both the audience and the presenter. The Armenian guests concluded that some of the principles of Diversion and Mediation program in Georgia are worth considering while negotiating with the Armenian Ministry of Justice for establishing a similar system in Armenia.
The second day of the program in Batumi was a good supplement to the meetings in Tbilisi and made the picture more complete. Here, at the Ajara branch of GCRT the participants had a chance to meet Maia Jashi, one of the first people who started mediation in Georgia and Tamila Dumbadze, the Social Worker of the local Probation Service. In a warm and friendly atmosphere the participants discussed more details of mediation service, went through the entire management of specific cases, talked about the difficulties arising during conferencing and various approaches to cases and juveniles.
As the briefing showed, the participants returned to Armenia full of new ideas and desire to practice the newly obtained knowledge in their work to the extent the local law allows, as well as share the information with their colleagues in regional centers. This initiative also supported the establishing of the links between the regional centers in Georgia and Armenia, as both sides still have a lot to share and discuss.
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