In Russia, 850 children are withdrawn from families every day, more than 300 thousand a year

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

At the press center of the TASS news agency, a member of the Federation Council, chairman of the Federation Council Commission on the preparation of proposals for improving the Family Code of the Russian Federation Elena Mizulina presented a final alternative report to the President of the Russian Federation with an analysis of the practice of removing children from the family and excessive and unlawful interference in the family by the guardianship authorities and guardianship.

The independent report was prepared on the basis of data received from public organizations and regions of Russia.

It was based on four independent monitoring conducted by the Association of Parental Committees and Communities, the Public Commissioner for Family Protection in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, the Parent All-Russian Resistance NGO and the Ivan Chai Family Protection Center, since March this year. Experts from these organizations are members of the Scientific and Expert Council under the temporary working group to improve the Family Code of the Russian Federation. At the end of May, a report on this topic should be presented to the President by the Government and the children's ombudsman Anna Kuznetsova, who joined forces with it.

“We, together with representatives of public parental organizations, doubted the objectivity of the conclusions that the employees of official departments would come to when they were forced to check themselves,” said Elena Mizulina. - We want the President to have an objective picture of the situation with the seizures of children, and not just the view of officials who prefer not to notice the scale of the problem. That is why we made the presentation of our reports public, while the representatives of the executive branch act behind the scenes, what they are going to report to the head of state is unknown."

As the senator said, during the preparation of the final independent report, a comprehensive analysis of 150 current legislative acts was carried out, 44 regional regulations were studied. Experts of the temporary working group on improving the Family Code of the Russian Federation came to the unequivocal conclusion that the juvenile justice system in Russia has not only been created, but has also been successfully implemented in all areas that concern families and children. This system is not limited to the seizure of children only, it offers legalized ways to control families with minor children and invade the family.

“The juvenile justice system is characterized by the presence of a substitute environment - institutions where a child can be temporarily placed. As a result, a gigantic network of institutions and bodies has been formed. Now there are more than 6 thousand of them in this system, and all of them are on state support. And we are talking about trillions of rubles. Thus, a constant “turnover” of children is ensured,”the senator clarified.

This system was finally formed, according to Elena Mizulina, in 2016. And not the last role was played by the appearance in the Government of Olga Golodets, who took over as Deputy Prime Minister in May 2012.

“As a result, over the past few years, 309 thousand children have been removed from families in Russia every year,” Elena Mizulina continued. - The government sees the picture a little differently: according to their data, the number of selected children per year is just over three thousand. This is only 1% of the real figure!"

In Russia, 850 children are forcibly separated from their parents every day, 740 children are temporarily confiscated. 38% of children are returned to their families within a year.

“Such a widespread practice of withdrawing children, which we are witnessing now, is a direct consequence of the success of state policy in resolving the problem of social orphanhood. This is its unintended negative consequence. This is exactly what Vladimir Putin spoke about in 2013: parasitizing on the problems that arise in the family is unacceptable. This infrastructure cannot be maintained by destroying blood families! - concludes Elena Mizulina.

A foster family for the state, and therefore for taxpayers, costs 7 times more than supporting a blood family with two children - with all benefits and mother capital. Keeping a child in an orphanage is 8 times more expensive.

At risk, Elena Mizulina notes, now there are low-income families, families with children living in communal apartments, who are in a state of divorce. 25% of families from which children are removed are large families.

“On the eve of summer holidays, I would like to warn parents leaving their children with their grandparents. You, too, are at risk! - emphasizes the senator. - According to the current legislation, the grandparents are not the legal representatives of the child. Therefore, cases of taking away children are not uncommon”.

According to Elena Mizulina, in general, in order to correct the current situation, it is necessary to amend 23 federal laws. The Scientific and Expert Council under the temporary working group on improving the Family Code of the Russian Federation has now prepared four bills aimed at changing the situation in this area: “These are three amendments to the current Family Code. One of them concerns the determination of the grounds for deprivation and restriction of parental rights, the abolition of the institution of taking away a child, the second concerns the establishment of guarantees of the rights of adoptive parents. The third amendment determines the priority of blood kinship custody, when a child left without parental care should be given priority to a family of relatives, and not strangers. And finally, the bill amending the Criminal Code and providing for the establishment of responsibility for the illegal removal of children from families."