ROUNDTABLE

The Best Interests of Children: Have they been well served in Europe?


Venue: European Parliament, Brussels, June 2, 2015

The Roundtable is divided into two blocks. The first block will be between 11.00-12.00 and will focus on the child protection systems across Europe, the way they take children and the measures that should be developed to prevent this from happening.
The second block would be then from 12.00-13.00 and it will concentrate on the topic of forced adoption and the way this issue could be addressed on the European level.
The seminar and Q&A session that will be included in each block will be hosted by MEP Tomas Zdechovský and he will also sum up the outcomes of the seminar in the last 10 minutes (12.50-13.00).

When is it ok to remove a child from her or his birth family?
“Children have the right to be protected from all types of violence, abuse and neglect. But children also have the right not to be separated from their parents against their will, except when the competent authorities determine that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child,” Olga Borzova (Russia, NR) says in her report, adopted yesterday by PACE's Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development.

Interview following Ms Olga BORZOVA's, Russian Federation, Report to PACE, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
January 26, 2015

International Conference on Child Protection System: Whether The State Will Take Over The Parental Role?

The conference aims to share experiences, insights, and expectations of the protection of children's rights and government support for the family in the Nordic countries, Denmark, the UK, Australia and Lithuania.
Conference Chair - Vytautas Budnikas, leader of Lithuanian Organisation for Human Rights.
Vilnius, Lithuania, February 20, 2014
Invitation for the International Conference in Lithuania

Over 50 Russian mothers have child custody problems in Finland

Finland has already created child custody problems for more than 50 Russian mothers.

Voice of Russia, RIA, Jan 23, 2013

Russian children’s rights Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov wrote this in his Twitter account Wednesday after Finnish social services seized 6-year-old twins from the Russian national Svetlana Karelina, when she brought them to Finland for a meeting with their father, who is her former husband.

Mr Astakshov urged Finland to comply with civilized norms in child custody matters.

DOCUMENTARY. Not without my children. English version

This is a real story – this is a case of Ivana Boorova. A woman from the west part of Slovakia, country in the heart of Europe. She loves her children more than her own life. However the foreign country and its government took them from her because of a fictional allegations of a child abuse. They had moved to Great Britain to see the world, learn a foreign language and earn some money. Like any other Slovak. But her hopes and ideas failed...