Children's excuses

UNICEF emissaries in Russia were greeted with new promises

The Russian authorities have intentions to ensure the rights of children, but so far these intentions have not been expressed in a government plan or at least in specific instructions from the cabinet to individual departments. This conclusion was reached by the participants of the conference, timed to coincide with the first visit to Russia of the Chairman of the UNICEF Committee on the Rights of the Child, Jacob Duke. The UNICEF emissary, together with representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, came to personally inspect the Russian authorities' elimination of the comments of international organizations on the third state report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Russia.

These comments were formulated at the end of September 2005. As Boris Altshuler, head of the Children's Right organization, told Vremya Novostei, the two most important problems remain the urgent need to reduce the number of children held in state institutions and the prevention of orphanhood. “In our country we have experience in reforming orphanages into social support services, but so far it has only been achieved through the enthusiasm of specific people. In the same way, the need to approve juvenile justice in Russia has been discussed for many years; this “strong recommendation” was also contained in the concluding remarks of the UNICEF Committee on the Rights of the Child, but the adoption of the relevant laws was delayed for a long time,” says Mr. Altshuler.

Yesterday, UN representatives again reminded Russia of its promises. “The practice of juvenile courts has been actively used in Europe for a long time, and has proven itself well,” Jacob Duke seemed to be persuading Russian officials. “Specialists who know not only the current laws, but also the characteristics of the child’s psyche work with juvenile offenders.” And I heard in response that no one in our country doubts the usefulness of juvenile justice.

As the head of the department of educational work of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Vitaly Polozyuk, recalled, “today, more than 6,430 juvenile suspects are being held under investigation in temporary isolation centers for teenagers, most of whom do not have primary or completed secondary education, and many are in need of correctional pedagogy.” “In Russia, there is an urgent need to create a system of juvenile courts that will consider cases of criminal offenses and administrative offenses committed by teenagers,” said, in turn, Olga Sharapova, director of the department of medical and social problems of family, motherhood and childhood of the Ministry of Health and Social Development. According to her, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade is already developing an economic basis for the functioning of “children’s courts” in all regions of Russia.

Such statements have been heard for several years, and while Russia is trying to eliminate long-standing claims of international organizations, new problems have already appeared in other areas. Chairman of the Coordination Council of Commissioners for Children's Rights Alexey Golovan said yesterday that now the first priority is “violation of children's rights in connection with the adoption of new housing legislation.” According to him, “at present, dozens of decisions are being made to evict people with children in Moscow without providing them with living space.” “This is a very dangerous trend for the state,” said Mr. Golovan. “If the situation is not changed soon, we will get a whole new army of street children.”

According to the Children's Ombudsman, the number of complaints related to violations of the rights and interests of children increases annually in Russia by 15-20%. “And if our demographic problems are solved within the framework of national projects, then the problems of protecting the interests of children largely remain outside their scope,” noted Alexey Golovan.

Irina BELASHEVA