A meeting of the board of the Russia’s Investigative Committee has taken place in Moscow to discuss efficiency of measures taken to prevent, reveal and investigate the crimes linked to adoption of children including by foreign citizens. The meeting presided over by Chairman of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin was attended by his first Vice-Chairman Vasili Piskaryov, Vice-Chairmen Boris Karnaukhov, Andrey Lavrenko, Alexander Fyodorov, Children’s Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov, Ombudsman of the Russian Foreign Ministry on Human Rights, Democracy and Supremacy of Law Konstantin Dolgov, officials of the Central Office of the Investigative Committee and heads of several investigations divisions in the subjects of the Russian Federation.
Opening the meeting Mr. Bastrykin noted that “overall care about children, their harmonious raising, healthy emotional and physical development holds top priority in any civilized state and society. The kind attitude and care for the younger generation make up a criterion of civic consciousness and is a sign of social maturity. Provision of safe and happy childhood has been one of national priorities in Russia for the past decade”. Thanks to the state measures taken over the past 5 years the situation with observance of rights of orphans, who live in residential care, or cared for by adoptive or foster families, has been gradually improving, with the reducing number of residential care facilities. According to Children’s Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov, the number of the orphans revealed each year has fallen by 40%. If in late 2007 there were 124,400 of them, in 2012 the number was 74,700. However, the number of orphans and children without parental care in Russia is still too high. Moreover, according to Mr. Astakhov, in 2012 over 3,600 children were abused by legal representatives, parents and teachers. The Ombudsmen has made an analysis, which shows that unfortunately there are multiple facts, when adoption has been cancelled. This way, in 2012, 75 decisions of court were cancelled, including 3 regarding foreign citizens, 16 of them were connected with improper discharge of duties in raising children (2 – regarding foreign citizens) and 1 by the reason of abuse of a child. “In this view it should be noted that the active protection of rights of minors is of special importance for the Russia’s Investigative Committee”, - stressed the Chairman of the Investigative Committee.
The meeting also noted the growth of registered crimes committed against minors by their adoptive parents, guardians or members of their families. This way, from 2012 to September 2013, the Russia’s Investigative Committee investigated 61 criminal cases in 169 counts linked to adoption of children. More than a half of the crimes (107) were sexual crimes. Besides, there are several facts of abuse of Russian children adopted abroad, murders and other crimes committed against them by their foreign adoptive parents. In all in 2012-2013 the Main Investigations Directorate investigated 14 criminal cases in encroachment on lives and health of Russian children adopted by foreign citizens.
Overall, over 9 months of this year alone the Investigative Committee has investigated about 13 thousand (12,767) crimes committed against underage. Of those crimes 392 were murders, over 1.2 thousand rapes (1,263), over 3.2 thousand sexual abuses (3,250).
Speaking about prevention of such crimes, the members of the board discussed offers to improve children protection legislation. In addition, the Chairman gave an order to the corresponding division of the Central Office to improve investigation in such crimes and to analyze the reasons of children’s abuse.
The meeting also analyzed the results of performance of the Investigative Committee in revealing and eliminating the reasons to the crimes committed by migrants and measures taken to suppress illegal migration. In 2012, the Investigative Committee received 2,469 reports on the crimes committed by migrants, over 9 months of 2013 – 2,431. Most of the reports came from interior bodies: 2,088 in 2012 and 2,046 over 9 months in 2013. 174 and 155 reports respectively came from citizens, 82 and 67 reports – from the prosecutor’s office, 5 and 20 reports – from Federal Migration Service and 7 and 21 reports – from the Russian Federal Security Service. In 2012, 2,216 criminal cases were opened into the reports and over 9 months of 2013 – 2,037 cases. During the analyzed period of 2013, 2,354 people have been prosecuted as accused, of them 153 have had previous police records and 258 were prosecuted for administrative violations (including the cases, when the term of prosecution expired). 807 people of the accused were illegal migrants and 66 of them were prosecuted for felonies and 92 – for administrative violations.
The meeting also noted that the most of the crimes committed by migrants were recorded in the city of Moscow, Moscow Region and Saint-Petersburg. The heads of the investigations directorates in the said subjects shared the experience in investigating the crimes and offered measures on prevention of such crimes and improvement of activity in surveillance and supervising bodies, who are responsible for suppression of illegal migration.
Head of Media Relations V.I. Markin
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