НАСТОЯЩИЙ МАТЕРИАЛ (ИНФОРМАЦИЯ) ПРОИЗВЕДЕН, РАСПРОСТРАНЕН И (ИЛИ) НАПРАВЛЕН ИНОСТРАННЫМ АГЕНТОМ МЕЖРЕГИОНАЛЬНОЙ ОБЩЕСТВЕННОЙ ПРАВОЗАЩИТНОЙ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЕЙ “ЧЕЛОВЕК И ЗАКОН” ЛИБО КАСАЕТСЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА МЕЖРЕГИОНАЛЬНОЙ ОБЩЕСТВЕННОЙ ПРАВОЗАЩИТНОЙ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ “ЧЕЛОВЕК И ЗАКОН”
The case was resolved in a pre-trial process
2 March 2020
Names have been changed for ethical reasons and in order to respect
the rights of the child.
The mother and daughter had spent May holidays in Moscow, and on 14
May Katya was taken to an orphanage from the Russian language
exam. Maria, Katya's foster mother, was only informed by the
guardianship authorities of the decision to place a child "from a troubled
family" in an orphanage. The guardianship authorities did not provide
documents explaining the reasons for this decision. Meanwhile, Katya
was in an orphanage for several months and asked her mother to take
her home. Irina Protasova, a human rights defender, and Lyudmila
Zolotareva, a head of the Association of foster families, were also
involved in the complicated family situation.
Katya from an orphanage
In 2014, Maria came to one of the orphanages of Mari El Republic to
meet a girl named Katya. They immediately found a common language.
A few weeks later, Maria decided to take Katya under her care. "Good
girl! A problem-free child. You are very lucky," the teachers of the
orphanage kept repeating. However, the teachers did not mention the
fact that Katya may have serious problems with adaptation.
In September, Katya went to school, and she began to have problems in
adapting both in the school and in the family. Maria went to the centre for
psychological and pedagogical assistance, where the staff advised her
to refuse from the child. But Maria wanted to keep in touch with Katya,
so she applied to a paediatric neurologist for help.
Fateful decision
During the five years of living in the family, Katya learned a lot:
maintaining order in the house, caring for pets, cooking simple dishes.
Maria wanted to give her daughter a comprehensive education. Katya
went to art school, swimming, basketball, and karate. The family had a
warm relationship. Katya called Maria mother. However, the
psychological problems were not completely solved.
In 2018, Maria again had to seek help from a paediatric neurologist. This
time, the doctors insisted on Katya's hospitalization. During the year,
Maria repeatedly asked for help in various centres of psychological
assistance, both in Mari El Republic and other regions. But since each
region decides how to provide psychological assistance, employees of
the Cheboksary psychological centre had no right to help Katya. And in
Mari El Republic, Maria was advised to refuse from the child before it
was too late.
In January 2019, when Maria was going to take her daughter to another
appointment with a psychologist, Katya, having a negative experience of
communicating with doctors and fears of them, refused to go to the
appointment. She went for a walk and didn't come home that day. The
next morning, Maria called the police, reporting the child missing. Within
a day, Katya was found, she was afraid that the police would return her
back to the orphanage. As a result, the police officers drew up an
administrative report on Maria, and the Commission for the Affairs of
minors and protection of their rights issued a warning for improper
performance of parental duties. This decision played a negative role later
in the fate of the family.
Break our relations
Not seeing a way out of this situation, at the end of January Maria made
a difficult decision to break the relations with Katya. Employees of the
guardianship authorities advised not to rush and observe the condition of
the girl. As a result, Maria took back her application on refusal from the
child.
Maria continued to search for specialists who would help resolve the
difficult psychological situation in the family. However, she received only
one response to refuse from the child. In March, Maria wrote a second
refusal. But realizing that without the mother's love and support, Katya
would disappear, Maria wrote an application for the return of the child a
week later.
In April, the class teacher informed the inspector of juvenile affairs about
the characteristic cuts on Katya's wrists. Katya was examined by a
psychiatrist, a medical examiner, and a suicidologist. As a result of
examinations, no injuries were found, except the wrists. Experts did not
identify suicidal tendencies.
Nevertheless, the investigator sent a request to the guardianship
authorities to take measures to remove the child from the family,
insisting that there is a threat to the child's life in this family. However, in
February, the guardianship authorities responded that the family is safe,
and there is no threat to the life and health of the child.
A month passed, the situation in the family stabilized. The mother and
daughter continued to live together. They went to Moscow for May
holidays.
After pressure from the investigation, on 14 May, Katya was taken to an
orphanage during her exam in Russian. Until this moment, Maria did not
know that her application for the return of the child was rejected by the
guardianship authorities. At the same time, in April, Katya wrote a
statement about her desire to live in a foster family with Maria. Several
months Katya still lived in an orphanage, while the foster mother proved
that her adopted daughter has the right to live and be raised in a family.
When Maria began to find out the reasons for this decision, the
guardianship authorities began to answer formally, arguing that Maria
could not cope with the child. In the documents, employees of the
guardianship authorities indicated two reasons for removing the child
from the family: unauthorized departure from home and attempted
suicide, as well as the presence of a decree on bringing Maria to
administrative responsibility for improper performance of parental duties.
Employees of the guardianship authorities, without supporting the
judgment with facts, diagnosed the girl with "mental retardation, the girl
is Mowgli". At the same time, Maria's two statements about her refusal
from the child were called "inappropriate behavior". They also refused
the application for temporary transfer of the child to the family for the
summer holidays.
Human rights defenders of the organization "Man and Law" prepared an
administrative lawsuit to declare illegal the decision to terminate custody
of a minor. However, they did not submit it. Human rights defenders
together with the Association of foster families "Maria" entered into a
direct dialogue with the head of the Assembly of deputies of the
municipality of Mari El Republic, where Maria and Katya live. The main
goal of negotiations is to act exclusively in the interests of the child and
settle the case in a pre-trial process.
In Russia, there are laws and support measures to ensure that children
from orphanages are able to find a family. Parents are prepared to
accept children into families. But after the transfer of a child to a family,
there is a large gap in the interaction between the authorities and
parents in measures to support families. When a new parent is left
alone with the child, conflict situations often arise. The authorities
consider the return of the child to an orphanage to be the main solution
to the conflict. But this is not the best solution, because the family often
needs psychological help from specialists, who are very few in our
region, especially in the remote areas.
"In any case, you cannot leave alone such responsible foster parents;
you need to help them in raising a child, especially when they ask for
help. Human rights defenders and social activists do not want conflicts
and court decisions as authorities, because they always have a negative
impact on children. And each of our actions should be aimed at
protecting the interests of the family and the child.
In this case, everything was resolved successfully: Katya returned to her
mother thanks to the interest and support of the municipal authorities. By
the way, the guardianship staff who "started a mess" does not work
there anymore. Now the guardianship authorities are making an
individual program of support for this family," – a human rights activist
Irina Protasova comments on the situation.