Being with children: the State Duma proposed to secure the rights of grandparents to participate in raising grandchildren

Now in Russian legislation the rights of grandparents to raise their own grandchildren are not enshrined in any way.

Childcare is the prerogative of parents, only they are the legal representatives of their children.

And if suddenly mom and dad, for one reason or another, cannot take care of the child, he will be sent to a social institution rather than transferred to the next of kin.

The grandparents have to seek the return of their own grandchildren through the courts.

At the same time, even close relatives arrange guardianship on the same grounds as people who are completely outsiders for children.

And litigation sometimes lasts for years.

Fight for grandchildren

Natalya Shekhlovitskaya, a resident of Nizhny Novgorod, fought for her grandchildren for a year when their mother died.

After the funeral, the children who were with the grandmother were taken away by the guardianship - the woman claims that they were taken by force.

“A commission arrived, and they literally snatched the youngest child out of the hands of me, saying that the boy should be urgently sent to the hospital for examination.

The next day, the elders were also taken away - the father, who had not been interested in children for a long time and had not lived with them, came to school, and the older girl was fraudulently forced to sign documents confirming his consent to live with her dad, who had a different family for a long time.

The same scheme was done with the older boy.

The children were intimidated, saying that they would end up in an orphanage if they did not sign the documents, ”Shekhlovitskaya tells RT. 

Natalya fought for the status of a guardian throughout the year - all this time the older children spent in a boarding school, and the youngest was sent to the baby's house, formalizing as an orphan.

Even before the official decision on the appointment of the grandmother as the guardian of the boy, adoptive parents from Moscow were found - Natalya emphasizes that if the new parents had time to pick up the grandson, she would never see him again.

“I'm now looking at Seryozhenka (the youngest child. -

) and I think, well, how could I give him to some strangers?

Since his birth, I was next to him, he now calls me mom.

The lawsuits to return all the children to their families lasted a whole year.

While I was running around the courts, my grandchildren lived with strangers.

In the boarding school, where the older children were sent, it was very difficult for them, but at least I was sometimes allowed to take them away for the weekend.

And the youngest was given away exactly a year later, ”Shekhlovitskaya recalls.

Natalya still recalls with a shudder about the courts and bureaucratic hell through which she had to go.

In her opinion, children who have lost their parents should be able to stay with their relatives.

“Grandmothers and grandfathers are the closest people to children.

And they will certainly give their own grandchildren more than some outsiders, "the interlocutor of RT emphasizes.

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"You won't get children"

In some cases, children, once removed from their own family, can no longer be returned to their relatives.

Svetlana Zhuravleva, a resident of the Moscow region, addressed such a problem to RT.

Her 33-year-old daughter Yulia was restricted in her rights to three children in 2017 - the elders were placed in a foster family, and the youngest son, who suffered from cerebral palsy, was sent to a specialized boarding school.

A year after the seizure of the children, their mother fulfilled all the requirements of custody and tried to restore parental rights, but she was refused, and then a criminal case was opened against the woman, first accusing her of beating her eight-year-old son, and then of molesting the child.

When Yulia ended up in jail, her mother tried to arrange custody of her grandchildren, but she was not allowed not only to take the children, but even to see them.

And then in the boarding school, where the youngest son Yulia was placed, Svetlana was stunned with the news: "The child died, he was buried five days ago."

“For more than two years I have been fighting for children and nothing came of it.

The guardianship directly told me: “You will never get them,” Svetlana says.

“At the same time, my conditions are excellent, I have a three-room apartment, and I am able to take care of my own grandchildren.”

In 2018, Yulia Zhuravleva was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Her two older children remained in a foster family, they are forbidden to see their grandmother.

According to Svetlana, now her grandchildren are single-handedly raised by a woman with whom two relatives and four more adopted children live.

“Living conditions in this family's apartment are terrible, 12 people are registered there, but this does not bother the guardianship.

In court I was told that the older children themselves do not want to live with me.

But the oldest boy is now 11 years old, and the girl is four years old.

I don’t understand how they could say that they “don’t want” to live with their own grandmother? "

- says the woman.

Chance to solve the problem

However, soon the situation with the rights of grandparents regarding their own grandchildren may change - on October 6, a bill was submitted to the State Duma for consideration, containing important amendments to the Family Code and the law "On guardianship and guardianship."

The bill, in particular, stipulates that children should not be taken from grandmothers, grandfathers and other close relatives who are in the process of registering guardianship before a court decision is made.

According to the author of the legislative initiative, State Duma deputy Natalya Kostenko, this regulation will also operate in the event of the death of the child's parents. 

Now, according to the law, such children must be placed in a social institution pending a decision on guardianship - that is, separated from their families for an indefinite period.

In an interview with RT, human rights activist Boris Altshuler clarified that attempts to protect the interests of such children have already been made - relatively recently, Russia introduced the concept of "guest mode", when children can temporarily live with close relatives who are not yet officially their guardians. 

According to Altshuler, legislative consolidation of the legal status of grandmothers, grandfathers and other close relatives of children is the right initiative.

“The fact that our Family Code does not have this is one of its big failures.

It is important that not only grandparents, but also other close relatives have the right to be near the child, ”the human rights activist believes.

The interlocutor of RT added that the guardianship authorities in most cases still try to leave the child with his family.

The exceptions are usually those situations when the closest relatives are “very elderly, or there are other formal signs for which it is impossible to use the“ guest mode ”.

Altshuler notes that the new bill will "bring the law in line with generally accepted practice" and exclude situations when a child is taken away from relatives on far-fetched pretexts.

The amendments submitted for consideration to the State Duma on October 6 also concern the ability of grandparents to look after their own grandchildren or, for example, accompany them on trips across Russia.

The fact is that now, if a child temporarily lives with relatives, since his mother and father are away or at work, the guardianship may have questions to the child's parents, and if this happens systematically, they may be deprived of parental rights.

This can even relate to a trivial situation when a grandmother picks up her grandchildren from school.

To legally stay with the child and represent his interests, relatives are forced to take custody.

Some also draw up notarized powers of attorney for children, however, according to lawyers, formally such documents have no legal force.

Moreover, custody of relatives has to be formalized on exactly the same grounds as completely strangers - with the same amount of paperwork and certificates.

Changes in legislation can make life easier for such families.

Nizhny Novgorod lawyer Albina Volkova has been dealing with custody issues for 12 years, it was she who helped Natalya Shekhlovitskaya to issue custody of her grandchildren and return them to their home.

Volkova believes that the proposed amendments will avoid cases when children are separated from their families.

“It is necessary to introduce into the law clear definitions of what is allowed and what is not.

An amendment to the law must be made without fail, because in situations where children lose their parents for one reason or another, it is naturally in the interests of the child to stay in the circle of relatives and friends.

For grandmothers and grandfathers, the process of registering custody of their own grandchildren should, in my opinion, follow the most simplified scheme, ”Volkova is sure.

In her opinion, it is not only the new law that is important, but also how the guardianship authorities will comply with it - after all, now they are the ones who decide on the child's stay with the closest relatives until the official appointment of a guardian.