Children’s adult-like problems
Ukraine recently marked Children’s Day and practically all political figures and statesmen visited children’s institutions. At present, there are some 103,000 orphans and children denied parental care in Ukraine. Twenty-nine thousand of these are institutionalized. The number of such children increases with each passing year.
Characteristically, the Ukrainian government has always remembered social “gaps” on the eve of red-letter dates. Proof of this is found in the Verkhovna Rada. The current parliament has tabled 107 taxation bills, 113 state-building and local self-government ones, and only 17 bills on children’s social protection. Of these 17 bills six were submitted by BYuT’s Oleksandr Feldman. Among the most important bills are the ones on housing and cut-rate municipal payments for families with many children, the same one-time social payment for the newly born and adopted child (submitted by the president), and on the children’s ombudsman.
WRONG ADDRESS?
Among the most important proposals are those on changes to the Law “On Notaries Public” that prohibit dispossessing children of homes. This law actually obligates the state to protect children’s rights in the course of real estate transactions and reads that any such transactions must be performed with the guardian’s knowledge and consent.
Under the Civil Code, the place of residence of children between 10 and 14 years of age is that of the parents or either of the parents. Thus, in case the documents submitted to the notary public indicate that the child has title to this home, the notary public needs the guardian’s consent. If the documents show that the child lives at an address other than that of the real estate being alienated, the notary public has the right not to require the guardian’s consent.
There are cases, however, when children are struck off the list of residents of an apartment before it is sold, in order to avoid compulsory authorization. This is precisely why Feldman’s bill obligates the notary public to check the State Register of Acts of Civil Status to see whether the owner of the real estate being sold has children.
Oleksandr Feldman has been dealing with the issue of children’s housing for a number of years. A year and a half ago he submitted a bill on changes to the Criminal Code whereby the principals of boarding schools assume responsibility for real estate owned by inmates.
Oleksandr Mysenko, head of the Oleksandr Feldman Charitable Foundation’s legal department, notes that the bill contains clearly defined procedures of criminal prosecution against persons whose actions violate children’s property rights: “Today, should the principal of a boarding school or the guardian consent to the sale of such real estate, he will not bear any legal responsibility. In contrast, the bill envisages between two and five years in prison.”
EFFECTIVE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN
Another important bill institutes the Children’s Ombudsman at the Verkhovna Rada and authorizes him to exercise parliamentary control over the observance and protection of children’s rights and freedoms, as required by the pertinent UN convention and the Law of Ukraine “On Protection of Childhood.” Under the convention, the child is an independent legal subject and his/her interests are social priorities. To some this is like playing childhood, yet the Ukrainian police (militia) statistics show that between five and seven thousand crimes are committed against children under age every year. These numbers are absolutely unacceptable in the European countries. Various acts of violence within the family have acquired a scope in Ukraine that threatens society and the individual.
Trafficking of children remains an acute problem. Over a thousand criminal cases have been opened in Ukraine, of which every tenth deals with such trafficking.
Back in 2005, Roman Zvarych, then Minister of Justice, raised the matter of children’s ombudsman. Approximately at the same time, the Verkhovna Rada’s Ombudswoman Nina Karpachova announced the beginning of the reorganization of a project aimed at instituting the children’s ombudsman. A contest for the best project was also announced, but the whole thing was eventually shelved.
Oleksandr Feldman’s bill inspires hopes for the appearance of a children’s ombudsman in Ukraine. Feldman believes that this will help solve the problem of homeless children: “The number of such children keeps increasing, yet only seven percent are biological orphans; others are ‘orphans’ who actually have parents.”
He believes that having a children’s ombudsman will allow to essentially improve the protection of children’s rights. There will be guarantees of government protection of children’s rights and freedoms in Ukraine. In fact, the children’s ombudsman is not an idee fixe of a single member of parliament but a requirement of the times. There are children’s ombudsmen in 25 European countries. In Russia, there is one in each subject of the federation. Ukraine stands a chance of benefiting from this European experience.
