Meeting with colleagues from the Regional Center for Human Rights, Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine took place at the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Necessary amendments to the legislation and regulations were discussed in order to improve protective mechanisms of the rights of orphans and children deprived of parental care, violated as a result of the temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

The following issues were discussed:

📌 obtaining IDP certificates by children who arrived from the occupied territories unaccompanied by their parents;

📌 registration of guardianship over children from the occupied territories and receiving monthly targeted assistance;

📌 court practices regarding deprivation of parental rights of parents from the temporarily occupied territories;

📌 what the authorities can do to ensure the rights of children from temporarily occupied territories;

📌 which body should be entrusted with the functions of judicial protection of children’s rights from the temporarily occupied territories of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol;

📌 how to preserve and strengthen the chain that connects children with Ukraine and bring hundreds of Ukrainian children out of the legal vacuum.

“One of the main reasons for the violation of the rights of orphans and children deprived of parental care by the occupying authorities is that the Russian Federation has unilaterally forcibly re-registred children living in Crimea at the time of the temporary occupation as Russian citizens. The protection of the rights of these children is complicated because the norms of national legislation do not take into account the peculiarities associated with the consequences of the temporary occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine. At the national level, it is necessary to regulate the powers of guardianship and trusteeship bodies”, – commented Darya Svyrydova, First Deputy Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea 

The work of the Mission on these issues began in several areas in December 2019. Meetings were held with the Commissioner for the European Court of Human Rights, and cooperation was initiated with the Regional Center for Human Rights and the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine to regulate the powers of guardianship authorities for orphans and children deprived of parental care in the temporarily occupied Crimea. In addition, the Mission submitted proposals to the Ministry of Justice for a Draft on the National Strategy for Human Rights.