News

Chairman of the RF Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin held a meeting of the advisory council for helping orphans and neglected children on 26 October 2016. The council discussed protection of children against violence as well as analysis of guarantying rights and legal interests of children by social protection, guardianship, education and healthcare authorities.

The meeting was attended by: Deputy Director of the Children’s Rights Protection State Policy Department of the RF Science and Education Ministry Irina Romanova, officials of the Children’s Ombudsman’s Office, state councilor of justice Alexander Sukharev, members of the Civic Council under the RF Investigative Committee, officials of the Investigative Committee’s Central Office, representatives of education and guardianship authorities, clergy and NGOs.

Summarizing the work of the Council, Mr. Bastrykin said that a number of problems were solved over the past 4 years, including by legislative initiatives. However, the council discussed not solved problems in more detail. Particularly, Mr. Bastrykin pointed out that one of the initiatives proposed by the Council dealt with paying social pensions to children, whose parents are unknown, as the Federal Law of 2001 “On state pension in the Russian Federation” gives right for such a pension only to children who lost one or both parents, as well as children whose single mother died. Neglected and abandoned children are in unequal conditions here as they have nobody to pay them alimonies while the state won’t pay them the pension. “While federal authorities are hesitating and marking time, regional authorities are treating this problem in all seriousness. Lipetsk Region, for example, has introduced a new kind of social support to orphans whose biological parents are not known. The Moscow Government provides the same monthly compensation,” Mr. Bastrykin said.

He continued by noting a considerable increase in the rate of crimes committed against children by their families and relatives. “If in 2013, the number of underage victims of personal and sexual crimes was 8,155 including 1,333 children against whom the said crimes were committed by children’s close relatives or family members, in 2015 the numbers were 11,774 and 1,900 respectively,” Mr. Bastrykin said. Therefore, the Council discussed measures to be taken to improve selection of candidates for guardians and adopted parents, which includes required consideration of candidates’ personalities, checking if they have police records or convictions for major crimes, if they suffer chronic alcoholism or drug addiction, mental or behavioral disorders, or if they are aggressively inclined. Additionally, members of the Council pointed out the necessity to check all members of the future adopted family, to educate and train future parents and to upgrade professional skills of guardianship officials.

The Council once more discussed providing orphans with comfortable housing, possibilities of allocating budget funding for paying unemployment benefits, for financing wages to organizations that give jobs to the people, who graduated from orphanages.

Ms. Romanov said about the work being done by the Science and Education Ministry to solve the issues discussed by the Council and requiring interagency cooperation. She pointed out a number of positive tendencies in material provision of orphans and higher rate of adoptions.

At the end of the meeting, members of the Council reached a conclusion that representatives of the Russian Interior Ministry, Ministry for Labor and Social protection, Ministry of Health and other agencies should be involved in handling the problems of orphans.